Home Improvement Forum

Hey guys,
I have this opening between the foyer and the livingroom. I have a hard time understanding the composition of it. I think this is a load bearing wall (most likely). The joists run parallel to it but there is wall exactly on top of this, pretty much copy of it which supports the second floor joists (rafter to rafter). This wall also supports the stairs stringers (to the right of the opening when facing the front door)

In short i dont see a typical wall and header (a short wall with king and jack stud). Is it possible this wall framed like partition wall? I mean it is perpendecular to the exterior wall so it basically splits the exterior wall in half. I dont know. How is this header supported.

The reason i ask is that i want to remove this divider and install two side lites with 2 slidings door in the pathway. But the constrcution of the divider is weird. I do not see any in nail marks in vertical studs. I see no bottom plate. The top pie e is nailed straight up in the header. I know im overthinking this but how on earth are the vertical studs connected? I doubt it us structural. Would it be safe to remove it? The header is about 5 1/4 inch wide. I know my house is double layer drywall. Here are the pics:

90% sure that is not structural. There looks to be a beam above that and it would be sitting on a support in the exterior wall cavity.

How was it constructed? Well it is likely solid wood and all the fasteners have been filled and painted over.

Actually you said the floor joists above run parallel so it may not even be a beam in there either?

Hey Shannon. That is what Is suspect. It is solid wood but i do not see in filled holes except on the horizontal board on top. Yup joists are parallel to it however this is next to a staircase and there is a closet above it. It is most likely supported by some double joists and headers exactly like hoe stair cases are framed. I think that header is sitting on a jack stud or something inside the exterior wall. My stud finder does not show any studs in there so i think it might be a solid header in there. I can take more pictured once i get home

If you've got double drywall, then your stud finder may not be strong enough to penetrate it, which would be why you're not getting any reading from it.

It is highly doubtful that is a structural wall, at least not in this section of the wall. If that detail is original to the house, it's not structural, if it was added by a previous handy homeowner, then it is anybody's guess. Stairs do not need a structural wall, so they are no indicator either.

I'm not understanding why you think you'd see fasteners in the decorative panel. When done properly, you shouldn't see them, especially under paint. I am absolutely certain that there are nails or screws in at least the head and bottom, probably the wall too. If you remove the paint in these areas, you're sure to find where the fastener holes were filled.

Because of the uncertainty of how the overall opening was done, I would be inclined to do some exploratory surgery to find out.

I believe it is orginal to the house. The confusing part is that i can see the nails on the top but not the vertical studs. I guess they did a better job filling the holes in some location. I think i need to open it up a bit more to see. Thanks