Flat Roof Load Bearing Wall

Foundation wall gravity and soil lateral loads headers girders joists interior load bearing walls and columns footings gravity loads exterior load bearing walls and columns gravity and transverse lateral load 3 roof rafters trusses and beams.

Flat roof load bearing wall.

Calculating the load on a flat roof is a challenging task for the layperson that involves knowledge of building materials their weights and local building codes. Roof and wall sheathing gravity and wind loads floor diaphragms and shear walls. Load bearing or primary structure usually constructed in timber in a residential construction. By contrast a non load bearing wall sometimes called a partition wall is responsible only for holding up itself.

Load bearing walls cross roof beams in a perpendicular direction. On the other two sides the roof terminates in a flat triangular gable. A gable roof is a roof that slopes downward from a central ridge to a building s exterior walls on two sides. Ways to identify a load bearing.

The standard guide in the u s the asce 7 05 lists weights and stresses for all building materials expressed in pounds per square foot. Joists are placed on edge spaced at 400 600mm centres supported by external and internal load bearing walls. The first kind of wall which carries the weight of the structure and supports the roof is known as a load bearing wall. Use this clue to narrow down possible load.

If a wall is located on the ground floor go down to the basement to observe the ceiling beams. This makes load bearing walls a key structural element of any building. These walls transfer the vertical load of the house straight to the foundation or some other element that undergirds it. Load bearing walls support the weight of a floor or roof structure above and are so named because they bear a load.

The roof trusses are too long to span the whole house so the load bearing wall runs down the center of the house to support the trusses at the perpendicular intersection in the middle. Due to the triangular shape of all but flat roofs the rafters or joists will run perpendicular to the roof ridge as well as to load bearing walls. A wall that is set directly over one of those beams is probably not a load.