How To Tell Load Bearing Wall With Truss Roof

Residentiall roof trusses are designed to bear only on the exterior walls at each end of the span.

How to tell load bearing wall with truss roof.

If you see these nearby internal walls may not be load bearing. One top plate and a space between the bottom chord of the truss and the top of the wall non load bearing. When joists trusses are perpendicular to the wall and bear on the top of the wall that wall is bearing wall. Engineered roof truss systems may be designed to eliminate the need for load bearing walls or change where the bearing walls are located.

If a wall is located on the ground floor go down to the basement to observe the ceiling beams. An example of a non load bearing partition wall can be seen on the left. Generally when the wall in question runs parallel to the floor joists above it is not a load bearing wall. An example of a load bearing wall call be seen on the right.

Actually a quick way to determine if the wall is bearing is to cut hole at the top to see if it has one or two top plates. But there are five possible exceptions to look out for. 1 when the home has an l or t shape there may be an interior bearing wall under the intersection of the perpendicular rows of trusses. But if the wall runs perpendicular at a 90 degree angle to the joists there is a good chance that it is load bearing.

If the wall in question is parallel to the joists trusses it will likely not be load bearing. Most simple construction truss roof home s roof and trusses are supported by the exterior walls perpendicular to the trusses. For example a gable end truss may be designed with support members that transmit the roof weight load outward to the side walls allowing the end wall directly below it to have breaks or openings in it that would otherwise be impossible. However there are cases where a bearing wall is parallel to the joists.

If there are two plates refer to an engineer. We usually build on the exterior walls set the trusses and do all of the chord blocking and truss bracing before buildin. Load bearing walls cross roof beams in a perpendicular direction.