# Load bearing floating wall??



## ordoro (Oct 29, 2008)

Hi, I'm finishing a bathroom in my basement and need to open a door at the bottom of the stairwell heading down to the basement. I initially thought it was a load bearing wall but now think otherwise, mainly because it is a floating wall. Can a floating wall actually be load-bearing? Thanks!


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## Termite (Apr 13, 2008)

No, not without some very elaborate engineering. Bearing walls in the basement always sit direcly on the floor (under which there is a footing of some sort) and the floor framing above bears directly on them.


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## specialguest (Sep 10, 2007)

Well a quick way to tell is look at the joists above. If the wall is parallel with the joists, you can pretty much rule out load bearing. If it's perpendicular I'd investigate further.


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## AtlanticWBConst. (May 12, 2006)

As KCT stated.....If it is installed as a floating wall = it is not load bearing.


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## ordoro (Oct 29, 2008)

Thanks to all! Definitely not load bearing then!


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## jmhedd (Apr 20, 2009)

I know a bit of a late post, but I just stumbled on this.

I am removing a section of wall that extends about three feet past my stairs that go to my bottom level. I had an engineer come out before heand to make sure it was safe adn not load bearing, and was told I can only remove the three feet, no more as it is load bearing.

Now that I have removed the drywall, I realize the wall is a flaoting wall, even the portion he said was load bearing. The wall does run perpendicular to the floor joists above it, but being a floating wall is obviously not load bearing. This actually is encouraging, since I wanted to remove more of the wall anyway to open the room up a bit more. Should I have the engineer back out to look at the stripped wall before proceeding with removing anymore wall?


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## jaros bros. (Jan 16, 2009)

Even if it is floating floor, that doesn't mean that someone didn't build a load bearing wall on top of it. Also, unless you posted some pictures and had some basic drawings or blueprints of the house, there's no way for anyone to accurately tell you if what you are doing is okay. You'd be far ahead to have the engineer come and take a look or a reputable carpenter.


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