Without them the house could crumble down under the weight of the roof.
How to tell if a wall is concrete.
If there is a basement or crawlspace below the wall you want to change go there and see if a beam supported by posts or piers is directly under the wall.
If there s no drywall just knock on the wall.
Your house s load bearing walls transfer their structural strain into a sturdy concrete foundation so any walls that interface directly with the foundation should be assumed to be load bearing walls and should not be removed.
Find a wall somewhere that you know is solid concrete and tap it.
1 8 to 3 16 cracks of this diameter are considered very likely to be structural and we recommend evaluation for cause and monitoring after repair.
Check for leaning walls with a level.
Once you ve reached your house s lowest point look for walls whose beams go directly into the concrete foundation.
These walls play a key role in supporting and reinforcing the building s structure.
These types of support are usually continuous across the whole wall.
Stronger concrete rings with a higher tone than weaker concrete.
We always tested the concrete that we placed.
Windows in wood frame walls are set close to the outside face of the wall typically within 1 inch or less but windows in a concrete block wall are recessed about 3 inches.
Monitor to be sure that it does not continue to open.
A hollow wall has a hollow sound.
If the wall feels as hard as concrete it probably is.
If so you can assume the wall above is bearing.
If the wall is on the first floor of the house and there is a basement or crawlspace below you can check in the lower level to see if there is another wall or other supporting member piers beams columns jack posts etc directly below and following the same path as the wall above.
If there is no support structure below the wall the wall most likely is non load bearing.
Some houses are a combination of two different types of wall structures.
If you have any major renovation projects you must know where the load bearing walls are in your house.
The walls should be basically straight both up and down and from side to side.
A bulge or curve in either a block foundation or a poured concrete wall could signal that the foundation has shifted or that the soil around your foundation may be expanding and contracting putting pressure on walls.
Use the following steps to identify a load bearing wall.
Stucco over concrete block will feel like solid rock.
1 16 caulking or masonry caulk recommended.
I could tell how strong the concrete was by tapping it.
Again check later to confirm that it does not open further.
In heavier construction the support may be masonry brick poured concrete concrete block cinder block or tile blocks.
Now the surface in most recently built homes this is wallboard also called drywall or plasterboard ranging from about 3 8 inch 9 5 mm thick to 3 4.
If the bit stops going.