I would like to enlarge my kitchen. We have a door that leads out to the car port and a wall that seperates the kitchen and dining room, my problem is that I'm not sure which direction to go. I have a brick house and even the interior walls are made of brick and plaster. I'm not sure whether or not the dining room wall is a load bearing wall or not. Would it be better to use the car port area (less expense) or toward the dining room?
Posts: 1 | Location: Georgia | Registered: 26 September 2007
You need to consider several factors. one. Will the township or the assocation if you have one allow the carport to be altered. Also if you go out towards the carport, you may loose value with the loss of this area. In addition most carports do not have real footings other then what is holding up the posts, therefor you will need to dig for footings, Which may require the roof over the carport to be removed. Typically to determine load bearing walls is to see what walls the roof joists and the floor joists either cross over or lay on. Those are typically the main loadbearing walls. Also any posts in the basement or main beams running in the basement are supporting load bearing walls.
Posts: 1010 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: 31 January 2006