Thursday, December 1, 2011

Wall Removal - Comparing options

Here comes the most exciting part of our remodel: Removal of the wall between bonus room and living room. In our model, this wall is spanning across 3 beams, and removing the wall requires dealing with the load bearing post holding up the middle beam. If you look carefully, there isn't a single beam there. There are two beams meeting there and being held up by that post. Before we finalized our decision on this, we've considered the following options:
Option 1: Remove the wall, but keep the load bearing post.
Option 2: Remove the wall, remove the load bearing post too. Run a cross-beam across to carry the middle beam.

Option 2 also requires reinforcing the concrete slab under the posts where the edges of the new cross-beam is supported, because the load is going be 50% more on each of those posts. This involves breaking into the slab and pumping extra concrete. We didn't like this option as it will likely result in damaging the radiant pipes.

So, we've decided to go with option 1, and we'll keep the post in the middle of the living/dining area! Imagine things you can do with a post in the middle of a room! :)

There are obviously two ways to handle wall removal:
- Follow your intuition, skip the permits.
- Go to the city, pull a permit, and suffer the consequences.

We wanted to play safe on this one decided to go with the more painful route of getting permits for the wall removal, because we didn't want it to be a red flag for a future re-sale of the property. That said, we've decided to move on to the next stage of seeking permits

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