Removing stud from load bearing wall

chris_1979

2 years ago

I am in the process of remodeling my primary bathroom on the main floor of the house. I would like to remove one of the studs of an interior, seemingly load bearing wall, and replace it with a 10in header to make room for a shower niche. Would the below proposed setup work (i.e. provide sufficient support and load transfer for the removed 2x4) or are there any concerns for structural integrity? I would put some temporary wall in place to support the roof trusses while making the proposed changes.

Some more details:

1. The main floor wall sits on top of a crawl space with a foundation wall + framed cripple wall that is set back about 3 feet (i.e. load is transferred through the floor joists to the cripple wall and another offset outside wall (about 6 feet).

2. The floor joists are 2x8, spaced 16in oc

3. The 2x4 main floor wall with the stud to be removed is 16oc and seemingly load bearing

4. There appear to be roof trusses resting on top of the main floor wall, (2x4, 24in oc)

5. There does not appear to be any direct load, other than the horizontal roof truss boards resting on the main wall

Picture of wall in question:

Thank you for your advice!

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Comments (3)

PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
2 years ago
You could pop that stud out and nothing bad would happen, however, that is not recommended. Your header framing drawing is fine.
outpaientzero
2 years ago
Your plan may not be correct. The number of Jack studs may need to be increased to 2 on each side of the header. And a 10" header is more than you need.

More information is required to determine what is required. The building span must be known and the ground snow load requirements for your area. I would also like to know if you're just using one 2x10 or two 2x10's in your header.

You could easily use just two 2x4 headers with one jack stud up to a 36 foot building width if your snow load was 30 PSf or less for the length you're spanning.

Or just one 2x6 header with 2 jack studs up to a 36 foot width and snow load of 30. This method of using just one header member allows 2" of insulation in the header space and a method I prefer.

Use this header sizing chart to determine what you actually need. But bottom line your present selection for a header is way oversized and the number of jack studs may need to be increased, and both depend on building width and snow.
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chris_1979
Original Author
2 years ago
Thanks! I have a 4x10 beam on site that I will cut to size and install with 2 jack studs. I know it may be overkill, but seems like that's what the builder used for other headers in the house.

The span of the house is about 70'. Expected snow load should be near zero in low lying California. However, there are solar panels sitting on the roof. The wall for the header is an interior wall that does not need any insulation.