Hip Roof Load Bearing Walls

Residential structures framing systems typically consist of the roof structure that supports the roof.

Hip roof load bearing walls.

Not all exterior walls are bearing walls though. However a house with a hip roof structure suggests that all the exterior walls are bearing walls. Load bearing walls are those walls in a structure that support the weight of the structure above. These walls directly support roof trusses or rafters.

A bearing wall will run in the same direction as the ridge of your roof. There are many houses where just the front and back walls are bearing walls. Side walls are primary load bearing walls in simple gable end framing but hip roofs and complex roof lines depend on more than just the side. Firstly premade hip roof trusses span a longer distance and can do without the presence of inside weight bearing walls.

Secondly prefabricated hip roof trusses are much less expensive than stick roof framingsince they come in short lengths of 2 4 stock. The wall you are wanting to remove is not a bearing wall by looking at the framing in the attic and the roof lines of the house. Any wall on all floors directly above or parallel to a basement beam typically wood steel i beam or a basement wall must be considered by a layman as directly load bearing. Deck exterior and interior load bearing walls beams girders posts and floor framing.

Shear walls or steel moment frames in homes with large windows or other large openings provide the strength to resist lateral loads. My home is different. Stair well openings are also typically load bearing points. Just to be on the side of caution i would install an 8ft 4x4 directly centered under the splice with lag bolts and remove the vertical.

A gable roof is a roof that slopes downward from a central ridge to a building s exterior walls on two. Advantages of prefabricated hip roof trusses. The exterior walls on houses that support the roof are primary bearing walls.