Monday March 23: After two days of destruction, not to mention the six years of my own de-construction, the house is finally being put back together. Not only have the massive mistakes by the previous owner been erased (at least in this area of the house), but the structure is better and stronger than it ever was. Hiring professional contractors is really paying huge dividends.
Load bearing structure, re-engineered
To quickly review: In the span of the space that was once two bedrooms with a bathroom in between, there were two load bearing walls– the walls of the original bathroom. The previous owner removed one of those walls to expand the bedroom.
The simple solution, and the one that I would have considered as a DIYer, is to replace the structure that had been removed, either by rebuilding the wall, or by installing a beam where the wall had been. The problem is that this solution was not compatible with our design. Notice how I phrased this– it was the solution not compatible with the design, not the other way around.
The solution used in our renovation is a little more creative. A load bearing steel beam has been installed several feet away from the original location, and the other stud wall has been reinforced with new studs that bring the joists up to level. The floor joists still overlap where the old wall had been so brand new joists have been installed to span between the two load-bearing structures, effectively making the old floor joists in this span redundant.
Load-bearing steel beam supported by jack posts.
The new joists are now the actual structure, the old joists are redundant.
The stud wall had been compromised when the previous owner cut it to run the plumbing vent stack and put in a doorway to the ensuite bathroom. Now, in this renovation, more of it was removed and replaced with a header, creating an “L” which becomes part of the new bedroom, serving as a dressing area with doorways to the walk-in closet and the main bathroom.
New studs to level the floor joists.
A bulky header completes the load bearing stud wall.
In the bedroom area, at least, the handiwork of the previous owner has been erased. I am resisting the temptation of calling him and inviting him over to see what had to be done to fix his mistakes. But what purpose would that serve?
I wonder how many house-flippers out there have made similar mistakes…
