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I am hoping someone may be able to offer some sound construction advice to help me determine if my internal partial stud and partial stramit board (Easiwall) is offering any support or bearing.
I have provided images with coloured annotations for clarity, but the below description I hope paints the picture clearer as to why I have some doubt.
In respect to the pictures, the first shows the internal wall I want to remove. The wall is a partition between my living room and kitchen, so the intention is to make it open plan.
The red vertical line is where the stud wall section (as I will explain more below) ends. The plain white section to the left of the red line (with the light switch) is where it is constructed as a simple timber frame hollow stud with plasterboard. The blue shaded section to the right of the red line is the stramit board.
The green lines on the ceiling, running parallel to the wall, are the joists.
Considering its partial construction approach, and the fact the wall is parallel with the joists, I initially convinced myself the wall serves no purpose for bearing/support.
However, for peace of mind, I cut open a section of the wall and ceiling where the stud section of wall and stramit board system meets (the top of the red line), to see how it aligns with the floor joist above (this is how I worked out the direction of the joists too).
The second picture shows the opening I had cut. As you can see on the left is the softwood timber of the hollow stud section of wall. You can also see the edge of the plasterboard on the ceiling where it comes through from the opposite side of the wall (the living room) above the top of the stud section.
In this same picture, to the right, is the edge of the stramit board. There is a clear gap between the top of the stramit board and the joist - so I further reassured myself this is definitely not taking any load.
However, as you can make out in the second picture, and even more so in the third picture, the joist located directly above this wall, even though running parallel, has been bolted together with - what I can so far determine - possibly 4 other joists (so there are 5 joists bolted together in total).
This is where my doubt comes in…
I questioned why the joists are “sistered” (if that’s the corrected term) and assumed that it must be to strengthen the single joist due to additional load it is carrying from above.
Directly above these bolted joists - on the first floor - is another partition wall between my bathroom and bedroom. This wall is made completely by stramit board and I know is pretty heavy stuff; nearly every internal wall in the house is constructed completely by this stramit board and I had to remove one previously and reconstruct a traditional stud wall as the stramit board had swollen with water (it was the opposite side of the bathroom to the bedroom wall I just explained and the bath is installed against that wall).
As a side note, when I removed this wall, I done some research to find out what the “straw board wall” was and when I checked the top of the wall from the loft space I could see the brown wrapped paper around the straw was marked with ‘Easiwall’, which I then discovered was a manufacturer of stramit board wall systems.
Back to the job at hand, with all this in mind, I am now thinking due to the load of the stramit board on the first floor, this joist has been grouped with others to bear that weight.
This then sprung the question:
Is the stramit board on the ground floor therefore offering some added “stability” to the grouped joists, but not a full load bearing wall hence it’s “half/half” type construction? If so, am I safe to just remove it without reinstating any stability measure…?
But then my opposing questions begin:
1. Why wouldn’t they have made the full length of the wall out of the stramit board?
2. Why does the wall on the opposite side of the bathroom (which as I said was also fully stramit board before I removed it) not have a similar type internal wall beneath it on the ground floor? The wall I removed on the first floor was the same size as it’s opposite bathroom/bedroom wall, which is the one above the ground floor internal wall I want to remove. Therefore, why would one need stabilising, but not the other…?
3. Was the partial approach just due to excess/shortage of material on site at the time of build? (By the way, this is a mid to late 80s build)
4. Was the partial approach to offer stability to the internal wall incase later occupiers wanted to add wall units in the kitchen, hence would have better fixing strength than the hollow stud section? That said though, again, why not then make the whole wall out of stramit board…?
I feel like I am now left with more questions than answers, which is why I am hoping someone can help clear this up.
I am also a little stuck as we’ve ordered a new kitchen on the first understanding - plus some conversations with friends - that there is no way this wall could be load bearing, therefore, we can go ahead with the open plan design which includes a breakfast bar in place of the internal wall.
However, now I’m having doubts, I’m worried if it does need supporting or the wall cannot come out, the kitchen design won’t be fit for purpose…
I will really appreciate any help anyone can give to put my mind at rest.
If there is any way you feel I can offer better clarity too, please let me know.
I have provided images with coloured annotations for clarity, but the below description I hope paints the picture clearer as to why I have some doubt.
In respect to the pictures, the first shows the internal wall I want to remove. The wall is a partition between my living room and kitchen, so the intention is to make it open plan.
The red vertical line is where the stud wall section (as I will explain more below) ends. The plain white section to the left of the red line (with the light switch) is where it is constructed as a simple timber frame hollow stud with plasterboard. The blue shaded section to the right of the red line is the stramit board.
The green lines on the ceiling, running parallel to the wall, are the joists.
Considering its partial construction approach, and the fact the wall is parallel with the joists, I initially convinced myself the wall serves no purpose for bearing/support.
However, for peace of mind, I cut open a section of the wall and ceiling where the stud section of wall and stramit board system meets (the top of the red line), to see how it aligns with the floor joist above (this is how I worked out the direction of the joists too).
The second picture shows the opening I had cut. As you can see on the left is the softwood timber of the hollow stud section of wall. You can also see the edge of the plasterboard on the ceiling where it comes through from the opposite side of the wall (the living room) above the top of the stud section.
In this same picture, to the right, is the edge of the stramit board. There is a clear gap between the top of the stramit board and the joist - so I further reassured myself this is definitely not taking any load.
However, as you can make out in the second picture, and even more so in the third picture, the joist located directly above this wall, even though running parallel, has been bolted together with - what I can so far determine - possibly 4 other joists (so there are 5 joists bolted together in total).
This is where my doubt comes in…
I questioned why the joists are “sistered” (if that’s the corrected term) and assumed that it must be to strengthen the single joist due to additional load it is carrying from above.
Directly above these bolted joists - on the first floor - is another partition wall between my bathroom and bedroom. This wall is made completely by stramit board and I know is pretty heavy stuff; nearly every internal wall in the house is constructed completely by this stramit board and I had to remove one previously and reconstruct a traditional stud wall as the stramit board had swollen with water (it was the opposite side of the bathroom to the bedroom wall I just explained and the bath is installed against that wall).
As a side note, when I removed this wall, I done some research to find out what the “straw board wall” was and when I checked the top of the wall from the loft space I could see the brown wrapped paper around the straw was marked with ‘Easiwall’, which I then discovered was a manufacturer of stramit board wall systems.
Back to the job at hand, with all this in mind, I am now thinking due to the load of the stramit board on the first floor, this joist has been grouped with others to bear that weight.
This then sprung the question:
Is the stramit board on the ground floor therefore offering some added “stability” to the grouped joists, but not a full load bearing wall hence it’s “half/half” type construction? If so, am I safe to just remove it without reinstating any stability measure…?
But then my opposing questions begin:
1. Why wouldn’t they have made the full length of the wall out of the stramit board?
2. Why does the wall on the opposite side of the bathroom (which as I said was also fully stramit board before I removed it) not have a similar type internal wall beneath it on the ground floor? The wall I removed on the first floor was the same size as it’s opposite bathroom/bedroom wall, which is the one above the ground floor internal wall I want to remove. Therefore, why would one need stabilising, but not the other…?
3. Was the partial approach just due to excess/shortage of material on site at the time of build? (By the way, this is a mid to late 80s build)
4. Was the partial approach to offer stability to the internal wall incase later occupiers wanted to add wall units in the kitchen, hence would have better fixing strength than the hollow stud section? That said though, again, why not then make the whole wall out of stramit board…?
I feel like I am now left with more questions than answers, which is why I am hoping someone can help clear this up.
I am also a little stuck as we’ve ordered a new kitchen on the first understanding - plus some conversations with friends - that there is no way this wall could be load bearing, therefore, we can go ahead with the open plan design which includes a breakfast bar in place of the internal wall.
However, now I’m having doubts, I’m worried if it does need supporting or the wall cannot come out, the kitchen design won’t be fit for purpose…
I will really appreciate any help anyone can give to put my mind at rest.
If there is any way you feel I can offer better clarity too, please let me know.
