Load bearing or not

[emphasis303]

Hi guys

I am intending to extend my kitchen in the summer however want to get rid of all minor jobs before so it doesnt all add up for costs and time.

I have a wall which is seperating the cooking area and a dining area and what to knock this down.

Now there is no wall running inline with it in the loft however in the room above is a wall which i suspect has nothing to do with the kitchen wall as firstly it is made out of concrete blocks and seems to be sitting on a bed of mortar laid on to the floorboards. where as the wall in the kitchen is made of common bricks which are used through out this 1930 house.

There are joists running over this wall when i lift the floorboards from the room above but i cant see whether they are lying on the kitchen wall. I must add though that it seems as if from just past where i think the wall is lying there seems to be joists ending there and another is running side by side from the external wall passing it. The wall is also a single brick wall

This is a pic of directly above the wall in question




The picture is the wall which is above but i dont think has anything to do with the wall below however would like confirmation that it isnt and whether u can see this from the photo



I will investigate further under the floorboards and get back with more photos

 

[kingandy2nd]

The walls don't look related to me, but I'm no expert.

Little story for you though -

I have a friend who took out a similar non-load bearing wall a few years back with a solid wall above. When the work was finished there was no way to tell how the wall on the floor above was supported (without ruining the flooring, plaster, etc)

When he came to sell the house the removed wall came out as a survey point which cause him problems because he couldn't prove that the wall he removed wasn't load bearing. It delayed the sale a fair bit.

It might have been that he was unlucky and got a rubbish surveyor, but although it's likely you could remove the wall yourself and it would be perfectly safe, if you plan to sell the place in the future I would suggest that you get an engineer/surveyor to sign the work off now to save yourself grief and expense later.

 

[noseall]

even though the two walls don't line up, the wall below may be offering deflection support to the joists as a result of the weight of the wall above.

i would treat the wall as loadbearing and provide adequate steel lintelling with calc's.