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Opening up a wall in a timber framed house

Started by NY_Caver, April 03, 2021, 10:13:18 AM

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NY_Caver

Time to stop lurking and post the darn question!

I'm in the early stages of mapping out a remodel of a timber framed single floor addition to our mid 19th century farm house. As best I can tell, the addition appears to have been constructed in the early 1900's from recycled early 19th century barn timbers.

Off one side of the addition is a sun room (conditioned space on a slab), and I'd like to remove the interior wall separating the timber framed portion from this porch.

Basically, my question comes down to this: Is there any chance that in an old timber frame construction of this style that the wall studs are an important structural component. Secondary to that, are there any resources I can use to verify the sizing of the timbers vs the spans to feel confident about the structural loads?

I don't have all the walls open to be able to map every timber, but I'll attach images of what I have mapped out so far. I think there's a good chance there are intermediate vertical posts that are buried behind walls, at least where there are now or used to be doorways.

Thoughts appreciated!







Old Greenhorn

I am not going to comment on your actual question, sorry. If you have read around here for a while you know we have some really sharp structural, building and TF guys and they will be around shortly I am sure.
 I just wanted to welcome you to the forum, I hope you enjoy your time here. Thank you for filling out some of your profile. I note that you are about the 6th member who lists their location as 'upstate NY' so that narrows it down to somewhere between the Verrazano Bridge and Canada, right? :D We have a bunch in the North Country, western part of the state,, and Hudson Valley. I am of the later group in Ulster County, east end of the Ashokan reservoir. WOnder if you could narrow that down a little? :D
 ANyway, welcome aboard and pull up a stump. bon_fire
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

NY_Caver

Thanks for the welcome Greenhorn, and fair enough on the upstate NY business!  :D Especially considering that no one can even agree on what "upstate" means. For sure some folks in the North Country would definitely have another term for the region I live in. You'll find my location to be much more specific now, though still not down to the decimal degree. 

Looking forward to gleaning knowledge from the wealth of experience on here.

Don P

Hey Caver, welcome to the forum. 
It is very likely the studs are structural, basically assume they are until you can prove they are not. More detail would be needed in your drawings for me to understand where the opening is and how it interacts with the rest of the house. The house I'm working on now was built around 1900, the 4x4 studs are indeed structural as the plate beams are not large enough to remove more than one or two without getting into overstress. The joists and rafters are already well undersized by modern code and have the deflections to show for it.

In the toolbox at the bottom of the left hand sidebar on this page are some beam and column calculators. awc.org has a publication "Wood Structural Design Data" on their website that has a pretty good explanation of beam sizing if you need to brush up, you can ask about anything here as well.

kantuckid

I don't see a toolbox? I see old post links.
OH! the red toolbox... duh... :D
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

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