My friends Scott and Kelly are remodeling their kitchen and would like to open it up to the living area.  They were content to simply cut some “windows” in the offending walls until I suggested removing them entirely.  They replied that these, in fact are load-bearing walls.

Clients are often under the impression that if a wall is load-bearing (holding up the roof) it cannot be removed.  Clients then get sad, and doom themselves to live in chopped up little spaces forever.  This makes me sad.

There is, however, a solution.  It is called a post and beam and it works like this:

Load Bearing walls transfer the loads of a roof (or second storey) to the foundation along their length.  Where a wall is removed, a beam can be inserted tight to the ceiling in it’s place.  The beam must then be supported by a post.  This post transfers the load of the roof to the foundation in a single point instead of a line.

Now, technically speaking this is a problem.  That is, the foundation should be modified to handle this new “point” load.  In New Mexico, however, we often have 4” reinforced concrete slab foundations, which allow a certain amount of loading anywhere.   How much loading?  Good question.  To answer that question we need to talk to a Structural Engineer….