How to determine if a load-bearing wall or not: design features and house plan for designers. Load-bearing walls in Khrushchev and their demolition How to determine where the load-bearing walls are in the apartment

How to determine if a wall is load-bearing

Many people, wanting to make their apartment more spacious, comfortable or more functional, decide to arrange a redevelopment. This is a serious decision, which accordingly requires a serious approach. It is not enough just to make an opening in the wall or, even more so, to demolish it by combining two adjacent rooms. It is necessary to know which walls in the house are load-bearing, whether it is possible to make an opening in them or to demolish them, so that this does not lead to a violation of the strength of the building and does not endanger its inhabitants. And to carry out the work, it is better to contact a specialized organization that is engaged in diamond cutting of concrete. In any case, redevelopment must be agreed with the local government. For spontaneous redevelopment, an administrative penalty is provided.

So. How to determine if a wall is load-bearing?

Load-bearing walls it is customary to call walls that take on the load from the floors and roof of the building and transfer it to the foundation. The thickness of the wall depends on the material from which it is made and what kind of load it carries. Load-bearing walls can be internal and external. Internal load-bearing walls are usually thinner than external ones due to the absence of the need for heat-insulating layers.

Designation of load-bearing walls on the plan

The first way to determine which walls are load-bearing is to refer to the building plan. This can be an architectural and construction plan of a working project for a building or a floor plan from the BTI passport. Unfortunately, there is no standard for the designation of load-bearing walls on a plan. For example, in the architectural and construction plan, the bearing walls are highlighted with a separate hatching, and on the BTI plan, with thicker lines, but not always. A wall can be marked with a thin line and at the same time be a load-bearing.

Defining Structural Walls by Thickness

The second way to find out which wall is bearing, by its location and thickness.

Load-bearing walls in a brick house

The thickness of the walls in brick houses is a multiple of the size of the brick (120 mm), plus the thickness of the mortar joint (10 mm), if there is more than one masonry. Accordingly, brick walls can be 120, 250, 380, 520, 640 mm thick, etc. Basically, in brick residential buildings, the internal partitions are made of bricks or gypsum concrete panels with a thickness of 80 or 120 mm. Dividing walls 250 mm thick brick or 200 mm double panels with an air gap. Bearing walls in a brick house have a thickness of 380 mm.

Most of the brick houses built according to standard series are the so-called "Stalin" and "Khrushchev" houses. Both of these types have similar design solutions and are made in the form of three longitudinal load-bearing and transverse walls, which support the longitudinal and, in general, are also load-bearing.

Also, the bearing walls are the walls on which the floor slabs are supported (short side). These are usually longitudinal load-bearing walls. There is an option when the floor slab rests on a reinforced concrete beam of rectangular section. Which, in turn, rests on load-bearing walls or brick pillars. Under the beams, inter-room or inter-apartment partitions are usually installed.

Bearing walls in a panel house

In panel houses, the thickness of internal partitions ranges from 80 mm to 120 mm, made of gypsum concrete panels. And, the internal load-bearing walls are reinforced concrete panels with a thickness of 140, 180 or 200 mm. External load-bearing walls in a panel house have a thickness of 200 mm. Most often, these are single-layer panels made of expanded clay concrete with a thickness of 300-350 mm or multilayer ones consisting of two reinforced concrete panels with a thickness of 60 mm (external) and 80-100 mm (internal), separated by insulation. Eventually, load-bearing walls in a panel house have a thickness of 120 mm.

Load-bearing walls in a monolithic house

With load-bearing walls in a monolithic house, not everything is clear. It is not always possible to determine them. In addition, they may not exist (for example, in monolithic-frame buildings). In residential monolithic buildings, there are a variety of designs. Such as monolithic load-bearing walls, columns, pylons, beams, etc. The standard thickness of walls and pylons is 200, 250, 300 mm. The diameter of the bearing columns can be over 300 mm. The thickness of internal walls, usually made of aerated concrete blocks, is 200 mm or more. Thus, the thickness of non-load-bearing partitions is less than 200 mm... However, the opposite is not necessarily true for a load-bearing wall. Since, in monolithic houses, partitions can be more than 200 mm thick (for example, from foam blocks).

If any of the above methods causes you difficulties, you will need to seek help from specialists of design organizations to conduct an engineering survey. Most often this is necessary in the case of an atypical building, a custom building or an old building.

The load-bearing wall is the basis of the building, we do the redevelopment very carefully

Load-bearing walls are supporting structures

Load-bearing walls are the pillars of the entire structure. After all, it is on them that the whole frame rests. Therefore, a violation of this design can lead to a disastrous result. Redevelopment requires special knowledge and qualifications.

Engineers and builders - only these people can correctly and competently redevelop the premises. Therefore, if you are planning to demolish a wall or just make a niche, then you should immediately contact the professionals.

It doesn't matter how much work you need to do, even if you want to make a recess in the wall for everything, it is very important to adhere to the advice and opinion of professionals.

Redevelopment start

Everyone knows that load-bearing walls cannot be demolished and broken. But sometimes redevelopment requires just that. First of all, you should figure out which walls are load-bearing and after that decide what and how to do.

We do everything in the following order:

You should start by inviting specialists from the BTI, who will write you an appropriate permit, if redevelopment is possible and safe. The issued document indicates the walls that can be demolished without compromising the strength of the apartment and house. After these procedures, you can contact the architects and builders to start redevelopment and further repair work.
In addition, it is very important not to forget that the redevelopment must be legalized, otherwise problems may arise with the further sale of the apartment. However, it will take a lot of time and effort to legitimize the finished redevelopment.
If you are interested in knowing in advance which walls in your apartment are load-bearing, then there are several simple ways that will allow you to install this. Each person can determine for himself which walls of the apartment are load-bearing, in order to think over the future redevelopment in advance, and after receiving the official results, simply correct it in accordance with safety requirements.

Having decided to start repairing and rebuilding load-bearing walls, or making arches (see Arch in an apartment: transformation into a decorative structure) or doors, you need to decide how much to actually do this. And to understand which walls in the apartment are load-bearing, what is their function and what can be done with them. Let's deal with these questions in order.

What are the requirements for load-bearing walls

Walls, ceilings, floors are load-bearing structures in principle in all buildings. It is the walls, not the partitions (see Partitions and walls - what is the difference).

Certain requirements are imposed on them and if the design is changed, the requirements must be met, and they are as follows:

They must be strong, durable and stable, as they are the pillars of the entire building. They carry the weight of both the roof and ceiling.

How to identify a load-bearing wall

The walls of houses and apartments perform different functions and experience different loads. Bearing walls take on not only their own weight, but also the weight of the ceiling. Having conceived a major overhaul associated with redevelopment, you just need to know how to define a load-bearing wall.

The load-bearing wall is installed perpendicular to the slab that rests on it. That is, the slab lies with its short side on the wall, giving it a significant part of its mass. Load-bearing walls are not always used in buildings. Sometimes columns or beams are placed instead. But basically, load-bearing walls are installed in residential premises during construction, which in some cases is easy to determine, in others it is difficult.

Load-bearing wall - support for floor slabs

We note in advance that operations carried out with load-bearing walls, including internal wiring, arrangement of niches and various openings, should not be carried out independently without professional skills. About arches. doorways, extended sections or partial demolition are out of the question.

How to determine which wall is load-bearing

The easiest way to find a load-bearing wall is to familiarize yourself with a house plan. On it, this wall is marked quite clearly. The plan can be found in the local executive committee in the capital construction management department. You can also use a detailed plan of the apartment located in the house book or data sheet. But in this case, the owner must have some building experience and drawing skills.

You can also look at such a plan together with the neighbors living on the floor above. Their design should indicate which wall their floor structure rests on. If the apartment is on the top floor, you can climb into the attic and pay attention to how the slabs are laid.

Note! If there is even the slightest bit of uncertainty, never touch the wall, as this can be very expensive.

Brick load-bearing wall thickness

If the plan cannot be obtained, we will determine the load-bearing wall by its characteristic features. The location of a wall can tell a lot about its purpose. The walls facing the staircase hall, as well as the inner walls bordering the neighbors' apartment, are load-bearing. In addition, some exterior walls bordering the environment can also be structural. They can form a building box, and take on the entire load.

The next way to define such a wall is to pay attention to its thickness. If the thickness of the brickwork is 38 centimeters or more, and if the reinforced concrete panel is more than 14 cm thick, then these walls are load-bearing. Now about this in more detail.

Brick houses

The width of the brick is 12 cm. The cement joint between the bricks takes an average of 1 cm. Simple mathematics tells us that 38 cm is a masonry of three bricks, in which there are two joints (12 + 1 + 12 + 1 + 12 = 38). 51 cm - 4-brickwork; 64 cm - 5-brick, etc. Interior walls are usually no thicker than 18 cm. The thickness of the walls is determined without taking into account the plaster. Therefore, before measuring, it is better to clean the walls from the old finish.

In brick houses built in the 90s and later, the situation is a little more complicated. They were most likely built according to an individual project, and the author of the layout will help determine the load-bearing wall.

Panel houses

Bearing walls in a panel house

In a panel or block house, it is very difficult to realize your building ideas, since most of the walls in it are load-bearing. These include inter-apartment, and external and perpendicular to the external walls. The walls of the sanitary rooms are also load-bearing.

Partitions between rooms are only 80–100 mm. But there are exceptional cases when in such houses the thickness of the walls is 12 centimeters wide. Should it be considered a carrier, or is it just a thickened partition? In this case, you need to turn to competent people for help, who will make a conclusion based on the architectural design of the building. They will also decide whether further work can be carried out in the house or not.

Monolithic houses

How to recognize a load-bearing wall in a monolithic house? In houses, the foundation of which smoothly passes into the building frame, any wall with a thickness of more than 20 cm is considered to be load-bearing. However, in such houses, which are often built not according to the standard, but according to the design decision of the customer, to determine the load-bearing wall, it is not enough to be guided by the dimensions alone. A simple partition in a monolithic house can be thicker than 20 cm. And there are houses where there are no load-bearing walls at all. Reliable columns are used instead. Therefore, a building plan and a drawing can serve as help. If for some reason they are not available, in this case, you cannot do without the verdict of authorized persons.

Permission from the relevant authorities.

Many do not want to contact officials and prefer to resolve such important issues on their own. But this is fraught with gross mistakes. Do not be afraid to call specialists to your home for consultation and obtaining permission. Moreover, if you find the slightest cracks, damp or crumbling area on the wall, even if not bearing, invite an inspector who will assess the degree of damage and give advice.

Note! Any redevelopment, regardless of the type of apartment, whether it be a Khrushchev or a cottage house, requires the consent and written permission of the BTI or other relevant government services. Structural work, even if done by a professional, also requires a permit.

If, nevertheless, it is necessary to carry out some dismantling work of load-bearing walls, they should be performed by a competent specialist who knows how to install temporary columns that take the weight of the slab instead of the wall. Representatives of authorized organizations, engineers licensed for this construction activity should monitor the process and carry out calculations of such columns.

Note! An apartment with illegal redevelopment cannot be sold, and it will be very difficult and problematic to get a project of an already converted apartment.

Do not think that the planned work is insignificant, and it is not worth calling the team. The slightest mistake can cost the lives of many people, because an imperceptible microcrack in the load-bearing wall can eventually lead to the collapse of the building.

Work carried out on load-bearing walls

Installation of the support during the demolition of the load-bearing wall

When deciding to carry out work on load-bearing walls, for example, ditching ditches, do it with the utmost care. If there are sockets or switches on the wall. remember that there is wiring hidden inside the wall. which, if the room is not de-energized, can damage the power supply system and injure the worker. If the house is old, there may even be a gas pipe in the wall. Work carefully and, if possible, use a project where all these nuances are noted.

Note! Never forget that you cannot demolish a load-bearing wall, leaving the floor unsupported.

If professional skills allow you to undertake partial removal of the wall, do not forget to place a support in the resulting opening, which can eventually be hidden with false beams.

Find more tips below:

Having bought an apartment, people often think about its redevelopment. The same thoughts visit the tenants of small apartments, the so-called "Khrushchev". And if problems rarely arise in a private house with redevelopment, then in an apartment of high-rise buildings, where almost every wall is load-bearing, this will not be easy.

They bear the load from the ceiling and upper floors. Therefore, having conceived to expand the doorway or move the partition, you should correctly determine which wall is the bearing. The safety of you and your neighbors will depend on this.

How to know if the wall is load-bearing

The easiest way is to look at the project at home. All walls are clearly marked there. The plan should be kept in the city administration, in the capital construction department.

In addition, you can also use the apartment plan, which is located in those. passport or house book. However, for this you need to be able to read the blueprints or have experience in construction.

Video: Olga Rozina: how to define a wall

If the plan cannot be found for some reason, then the purpose can be understood by some characteristic features. So, for example, if there is a neighbor's apartment behind the wall, the entrance or the street are load-bearing.

Another way to find out is by thickness. If you live in a brick house and the thickness of the partition is 38 cm, then it is load-bearing. In the panel, the thickness of the load-bearing walls is 14 cm or more.

In a brick house

In brick houses, the thickness of the outer ones starts from 38 cm, between the apartments from 25 cm, the interior thickness - 8 - 12 cm. The main material for the construction of such houses is silicate and red bricks.

For partitions, gypsum boards can be used. Having measured the wall, for example, in the area of the doorway, you can understand whether it is capital or a partition.

However, this method is not suitable for all homes. So, for example, in the 90s, houses were built according to individual projects, so if there is no plan, then only the author of the project can determine.

In the panel

Since the panel house is almost entirely composed of carriers, it will be very difficult to implement the planned redevelopment. Load-bearing walls include inter-apartment, external and adjacent to external ones. In addition, the walls of the bathrooms can also be carriers.

Interior partitions are 8 - 10 mm thick. There are partitions and 12 cm each, but this is a rare exception. To determine the purpose of the walls in this case, it is better to contact specialists who will draw a conclusion only after studying the structural features of the building and decide whether it is possible.

In monolithic houses

A monolithic house is a building whose foundation smoothly merges into the wall. In such buildings, any wall with a thickness of more than 20 cm is load-bearing. Such structures are usually made according to an individual project; it will not work to determine with the help of its size.

It so happens that an ordinary interior partition in monolithic buildings has a thickness of more than 20 cm. There are monolithic houses in which the load-bearing walls are completely absent. They are replaced by reinforced concrete columns.

And in this case, one cannot do without a drawing and a plan. If they are absent, you will have to contact specialized companies.

Load bearing wall (fig. 1)- the main non-material-enclosing vertical structure of the building, which rests and transfers to the foundation the load from the floors and the own weight of the wall, separating adjacent rooms in the building and protecting them from the external environment.

Self-supporting wall (fig. 2)- an external enclosing vertical structure that protects the interior of the building from the effects of the external environment, which rests on and transfers the load from its own weight to the foundation.

Fig. 2. Self-supporting wall
(the outer wall rests on the foundation, and the ceiling is adjacent to the wall)

Curtain wall (fig. 3)- an outer wall resting on a ceiling within one floor with a floor height of no more than 6 m. (with a higher floor height, these walls are self-supporting) and protecting the building from the outside from the external environment.

Partition- an internal vertical curtain wall resting on the ceiling and separating adjacent rooms in the building.

In buildings with self-supporting and non-bearing external walls, loads from coatings, ceilings, etc. transferred to the frame or transverse structures of buildings.

In the house, walls that stand on the foundation and on which the floors rest will be carriers.

And the walls standing on the foundation without supporting the overlap on them will be self-supporting.

Fig. 3. Curtain wall (outside wall rests on the floor slab)

Walls of different constructive purposes bear different loads. To ensure the required bearing capacity for different walls, a certain wall thickness and the strength of the materials used are chosen.

For example, the internal and external load-bearing walls of buildings made of aerated concrete blocks up to 3 floors in height are recommended to be made from blocks of compressive strength classes not lower than B2.5, glue or mortar grade not lower than M75; at a height of up to 2 floors inclusive - not lower than B2 on glue or on a solution of grade not lower than M50.

For self-supporting walls of buildings with a height of up to 3 floors, the class of blocks must be at least B2.

A load-bearing wall is a wall on which elements located on the upper floors of an apartment building are supported. It takes on the load of beams, slabs, conventional partitions and balconies, maintaining the integrity of the entire structure from roof to foundation.
If you improperly redevelop, demolish or damage the load-bearing wall, then this will be fraught with big problems - from cracks in the structure to its collapse.
AiF.ru tells how to determine that the wall is load-bearing.
There are several ways to find out the technical characteristics of the walls:

How to carry out a safe redevelopment?

Safe redevelopment of an apartment or house can only be carried out by professionals. Regardless of the scale of the reconstruction, it is necessary to invite specialists from the BTI and Moszhilisnpektsii, who, after an engineering survey, will issue you an official permission for redevelopment indicating all the walls that can or cannot be demolished.

What punishment awaits a person for unauthorized redevelopment?

Any changes that are made to the layout of housing in relation to the original BTI plan must be agreed with the Moscow Housing Inspection. This is required by the housing legislation of the Russian Federation and Moscow.
In the absence of permits, redevelopment is considered unauthorized, and therefore illegal. In this case, according to Art. 7.21 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, you will be fined for illegal redevelopment in the amount of 2 to 2.5 thousand rubles. For legal entities, it is much higher - from 350 thousand to 1 million rubles.
In addition to the fine, an order is issued to the offender for illegal redevelopment of the apartment, according to which the offender will be obliged to either legalize the redevelopment, or return the condition of the apartment to its original state.
The thickness of the wall must be measured in "pure form", that is, do not take into account the thickness of the pasted wallpaper and plaster. Sometimes, in order to make a measurement, you need to drill a through hole in the wall.

From the author: hello dear readers. We all love our home anxiously, take care of it, do cosmetic repairs. Sometimes simple finishing works are not enough for us, and we begin to think about redeveloping an apartment. It can be of two types: either the construction of additional walls, or the demolition of some of the existing ones.

The second option is most often used. Apartments in many houses are rather small, sometimes it is almost impossible to turn around on such an area. Therefore, people are trying to get out of the situation with the help of redevelopment. Someone connects the kitchen and the living room, someone expands the area of the room by joining a loggia to it, and some simply make one large hall out of two rooms.

The problem is that not every wall can be safely damaged or removed. In any house, there are supporting structures, without which the structure will simply collapse. Therefore, you must definitely have information on how to find out if a load-bearing wall is or not, so that the redevelopment does not lead to huge fines or to tragedy.

And before starting, I would like to draw your attention to the following. After redevelopment of an apartment, cosmetic repairs are usually made, and, more often than not, on a fairly large scale. Since you are even ready to start demolishing the walls on your own, then you will hardly want to entrust the decoration of the premises to outsiders.

What is a "load-bearing wall" and what is it for?

It is called "carrier" precisely because it bears the weight of all that is above. It carries the load from beams, walls, floors and the like. Simply put, load-bearing elements are the foundation of the building on which everything rests. If one of them is damaged or removed, the result can be very tragic - from cracks in other walls, which in this case will have an additional load, to the collapse of the building.

That is why any redevelopment must be previously approved by the BTI. As you can imagine, this is a necessary security measure necessary for all people living in the house. Including for the initiators of such a global repair.

We will return to the issue of coordination in more detail a little later, but now we will talk about how to distinguish load-bearing elements from ordinary ones, so as not to accidentally create a dangerous situation.

How to find out the location of the load-bearing walls in the house?

The easiest way is to get a plan of your house from the Office of Capital Construction (UKS). This useful drawing shows both the load-bearing elements themselves and the floor slabs resting on them. A similar plan can be taken from a house book or a registration certificate, but everything is somewhat more complicated there, for understanding it is necessary to understand the drawings and have at least some experience in construction work.

If for some reason none of the plans is available to you, then you will have to involve the knowledge that you will learn from this article. But remember firmly: if there is even the slightest shadow of doubt, then do not try to start redevelopment without official clarification. Any mistake in this matter threatens with very big trouble, and this is at best.

So, to begin with, let's designate common features. The load-bearing walls are usually:

delimiting your apartment and neighbors;
separating the staircase from your home.

A more specific indication is the thickness of the wall, which depends on the type of house.

Panel

Here, almost all vertical elements bear the load. The only exceptions are some internal partitions. Their thickness is usually 80–100 mm, in some cases it reaches 120 mm. But from 120 mm and above - this size is characteristic of already bearing walls.

You can also navigate by the material from which the structure is made. In almost all panel houses, gypsum concrete panels are used for internal partitions. But for those who worry us most now - reinforced concrete blocks.

Brick

Here, the thickness of the structures of interest to us should be at least 380 mm. But such a simple approach will only help in houses built before the 90s. In newer buildings, the situation may be very different. Therefore, to accurately determine the type of walls in such houses, you still need to look for an official source of information.

Monolithic

This type of structure is a structure made with a reinforcement frame that is poured with concrete. In such buildings, the main load usually falls on those walls whose thickness is at least 20 cm. But such structures are usually made according to individual orders, so you should still focus on the house plan.

For a more accurate determination of the thickness, you must first clean the surface of all decorative layers: plaster, paint, wallpaper, and even more so. Although the finish does not make such significant adjustments, it can still critically affect the measurement result.

What actions can be taken with load-bearing walls?

As mentioned above, the structure that carries the main load is the foundation of the entire building. Therefore, you need to handle it extremely carefully. To begin with, let's designate those actions that are unacceptable to perform in relation to the load-bearing wall:

demolish, as this is fraught with the loss of stability of the entire building;
transfer to another place - for the same reasons as in the previous paragraph;
or pipes.

Yet she is not completely untouchable. For example, you can:

make or expand a doorway;
drill, including through, if the hole will have a small diameter.

In this case, it should be borne in mind that it is possible to do and expand the openings only after official agreement with the administration. And when drilling, you should first determine if there is any wiring inside the wall. Otherwise, you can hit with a drill directly into it, which threatens you with serious injuries, and the apartment - blackout.

How to agree on the redevelopment?

At the beginning of the article, we mentioned that any actions related to changing the layout of an apartment must first be coordinated with the appropriate authorities. As a rule, such issues are dealt with by the Bureau of Technical Inventory (BTI). Negotiation is required for two reasons.

Firstly, residents cannot always correctly determine the type of wall, so they begin to perform some prohibited actions with the carrier, mistaking it for an internal partition. That, as has been mentioned more than once, can become a real threat to people's lives.

Secondly, without official permission, any redevelopment is considered illegal. This will lead both to fines and to the fact that subsequently such an apartment cannot be sold.

At the end of the topic, we suggest you watch the video for greater clarity. Remember that only you are responsible for the actions performed in your apartment. Therefore, take the questions of redevelopment very carefully. Good luck and great achievements in the renovation business!