Opening a Lake Hills Rambler: A 16-Foot Bearing Wall Replaced by a Flush Beam

What did the homeowners want to change?

The owners cooked in a narrow galley kitchen with no view of the family room where their children played. They wanted one room: kitchen, island and family area together. The wall between them ran down the middle of the house, directly under the roof ridge.

What did the engineer find?

In the attic, the ceiling joists ran across the wall from both exterior walls and lapped on top of it, and short braces from the wall supported the rafters near midspan. The wall was carrying ceiling and part of the roof load. In the crawlspace, the wall sat on a continuous footing, but removing it would concentrate all of that load at two points.

How was it solved?

The engineer designed a flush LVL beam set up into the ceiling plane, with every joist reattached on face-mount hangers so the ceiling would read as one surface. Posts at each end were hidden in a remaining partition and a pantry wall. Under each post, a new concrete footing was poured in the crawlspace, sized for the concentrated load. Temporary shoring walls held the ceiling while the old wall came out and the beam went in.

Scope of work: Lake Hills wall removal

• Engineering, permit drawings and Bellevue building permit.
• Shoring, wall demolition and relocation of two circuits.
• Flush LVL beam, hangers, posts and two crawlspace footings.
• Drywall patching across the ceiling, paint-ready finish.

The new kitchen layout was built as a separate phase using the kitchen remodel service.