Removing an interior wall???.... Pics(56k beware)

[Fast]

Hello there, Great resource site you got here!!

Well, I'm hoping that you guys can give me a little guidance on a stumbling block I've encountered. I am in the middle of a full kitchen remodel. and I would like to remove a partition wall between my kitchen and my dining room. The wall runs parallel to the ceiling joists and doesn't carry any load from the ceiling. However, after closer inspection there are two roof braces resting on this wall. :?

The house is in Southern California and was built in 1954. My roof is a gable style with the ridge beam at about 6'3" above the ceiling joists. From all the info that I have been able to find about this type of roof the weight of the roof is carried by the gable ends and the outer walls that are parallel to the ridge...... Which leads me to think that these braces don't really carry any weight, or at least a small amount or are only there to hold things square. (of course I'm not a pro so it wouldn't surprise me if I'm incorrect)

Here are a couple of pictures that I hope will explain the situation better.

http://www.dashboxmedia.com/~fastbak/pics/Overall.jpg

This is the wall.

http://www.dashboxmedia.com/~fastbak/pics/Remainingwall1.jpg
This is the section of the wall I had planned to leave in place.(from the red line to the right of pic.)

http://www.dashboxmedia.com/~fastbak/pics/Atticsupports.jpg
This is the attic view of the wall.... The red line is a main load bearing wall, The red outline is the section of the wall that will remain in place. And the blue outline is the section of the wall I wanted to remove.

http://www.dashboxmedia.com/~fastbak/pics/Supportdetail1.jpg
This pic gives a better view of the gable end.

Ok, now what should I do? :( My original plan was to leave the top two 2x4's (top plate?) and drywall over them to create a sofit of sorts.(sorry, I'm really bad about the technical terms) and to do the same thing where this wall meets the exterior wall. Will this work? or do I need to actually install a header beam to a certain spec?

I would really apreciate any help that someone with a lot more knowledge and experience can give me.

Thanks, Steve.

[Rich]

If you really want to be sure it's not going to fail I would place collar ties on the rafters.. and then put in a header all the way across where you are removing the wall. Maybe something like a double 2x8 header - this will make a deeper soffit of course - but makes for a much stronger connection.
There are definately other considerations and possibilities - you may want to bring an engineer out or show them the pictures to get some other ideas.

[Fast]

Thank's for the reply :mrgreen:


If you really want to be sure it's not going to fail I would place collar ties on the rafters..

By "collar ties" do you mean 2x4/6 laid flat across the ceiling joists and naild in? Sorry, I don't know all the correct terminoligy. :oops:

then put in a header all the way across where you are removing the wall. Maybe something like a double 2x8 header - this will make a deeper soffit of course - but makes for a much stronger connection.


Yeah, thanks for the confirmation. That's pretty much what I thought I would have to do after seeing the brace sitting on the wall. It makes me wish I had a hip-style roof like my neighbor....... I live in a track home and my neighbor has the same floor plan but with a different roof style. They had removed the same wall but didn't have anything resting on it....... Oh well, I got a bigger attic then they do so I guess were even. :P

Thanks again for the help!!
Steve

[Rich]

Collar ties are higher up the rafters and span from rafter to rafter. Picture a 2x going from rafter to rafter so as not to let the rafters and walls spread apart.

[Fast]

Oh, ok...... Got it. :)

Right now there are 1x6 collar ties every other rafter all the way across the house.(3 are visible in my last pic.) So maybe adding some 2x4or6 collar ties on the rafters that don't have the 1x6's for half the house might be a good idea then..... Is it ok to overlap the collar ties in the middle? Maybe by a foot or so? The span is around 14' or so (at the level of the current ties) and I think that 10' is gonna be max for what I can fit into the attic.

[Rich]

It would be best to have continuous all the way across - you could go higher with the ties. Let's see 6' you could go up to a little above 4' from ceiling joists - not sure about scale of your pictures - that might be right where the others are. If you need to splice - use a butt joint and overlap each side by 4' with 1/2" plywood. Staple in 3 rows @ 4" centers across the plywood into the 2x6 ties. Make sure and do both sides of the 2x. That's my opinion anyway - an engineer might say different.

[Fast]

Thanks for the tip! Hopefully I may have found a way around the length problem. :D I might be able to feed longer lengths of 2x6 up through one of my eve vents. I'm gonna give it a try this weekend and see what happens.

Thanks for all the input!!
Steve