Load-Bearing Wall Removal in Broad Ripple, Indianapolis
The thing that catches people out when opening up a Broad Ripple bungalow is that the wall may be holding up the roof rather than the floor. Bungalow roofs of this period are commonly framed with rafters supported partway along their span by purlins, and those purlins are held up by short posts that land on interior walls.
That arrangement is invisible from below and easy to miss from the attic if you are not looking for it. It means a single-storey interior wall in a house with no second floor can still be carrying a substantial share of the roof, and removing it drops the purlin, which pushes the rafters outward and spreads the walls.
So the design starts in the attic, not the room being renovated. Once it is clear what the wall carries, the beam calculation itself is ordinary — the failure here is not usually a miscalculated beam but a wall confidently declared non-bearing because there was nothing directly above it.
What We Look At Here
- Attic inspection for purlins, purlin posts and where their loads come down
- Whether the wall carries roof load, floor load, both, or neither
- Tributary width and total load, established before any sizing is done
- Beam sizing across the clear span with deflection checked as well as strength
- End bearing and a continuous load path to a footing capable of the point load
- Temporary shoring, including support for the roof structure during removal
More on the service itself: Load-Bearing Wall Removal. More on the area: Broad Ripple.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
There is nothing above this wall in my Broad Ripple bungalow. Is it safe to remove?
Not necessarily. Bungalow roofs often carry purlin posts landing on interior walls, so a wall with open attic above it can still be holding up the roof. The attic has to be looked at before the wall can be called non-bearing.