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Hi,

First post here, structural is not really my forte (I'm more of an HVAC guy), so I'm looking for some professional opinions here. I would like to take down the wall separating my living room and dining room. I took a bunch of measurements of the first floor and the structural members in the basement below. I attached an overlay of the first floor walls (the one in green is the one I want gone) and the structural members in the basement below in red dashed lines. I'm 90% sure this wall is not load bearing for a few reasons:

1.) The floor joists run parallel to the wall I want to remove.
2.) There is no walls directly above this wall on the second floor. This isn't shown on my plan but I did also make a plan of the second floor and overlaid it on the first floor to double check.
3.) The floor joists for the second floor run in the same direction. Again, this isn't shown here but I verified this visually.

What was throwing me for a loop were the doubled up members beneath the wall in question but I read in a book that this was good practice back in the day to support the weight of the wall above. So I suspect the wall can come out without the need to install a header in it's place but I would like to be 100% sure. House is circa 1875, balloon framed, plaster & lathe with field stone foundation if it matters.

What does everyone think? All help is appreciated.

Computer or website was acting up yesterday, here is the attachment.1,000,001

Attempt#1,000,000

I'm struggling big time to upload a decent image of the issue. For some reason this website keep downgrading the image quality making it hard to see whats going on. Last attempt.

The only way to be 100% sure about removing this wall is to have an engineer look at it. However, from your description, it does sound like this is not a support wall. As long as the floor joists above the wall are continuous and don't have any breaks. Since this is only 12 feet it is unlikely that they are not continuous. Your right about the double members below the wall, it is just to support the wall. Good luck.

Though the concept you are using is far better. But still there is always a chance of improvement in it. Completely removing it is not a small task. jwd217 is right you should consult a structural engineer http://universalengineering.us/stru...gineering/ about this so that you have an exact idea about this.