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marriage wall

Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 11:28 am
by Suzque49
Ok, I learned from this site and all you knowledgable folks that the marriage wall is supposed to be load bearing. Makes sense.
But there is always the exception to the rule.
We are remodeling our kitchen and I wanted the wall opened up between the kitchen and dining room, 2 different sections connected with a marriage wall.
This is what we found, :o the interior walls are not load bearing. The walls were built in place and set up, they even installed the ceiling drywall before placing the walls!?!?! (the drywall is sandwiched between the top plate of the wall and what would usually be a wall top plate to support the rafters). You can "wiggle" the studs, so no weight on them at all.
The headers for the doors were not supported by king studs, just stapled at the top and sides.
I was going to post some pics but they are too big, I'll see if I can resize some of them and start a photo album.
Oh, and they took long nails and bent them over, it appears in order to "secure" the two walls together, no wonder there was such a problem with cracks in the drywall. :roll:

Re: marriage wall

Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 7:14 pm
by Greg
The marriage wall IS a load bearing wall,, the fact may be that there is not much of a load on it at the moment. If you are in an area that gets any amount of snowfall that would change when you put 2 feet of snow on the roof. I personally would be very cautious making ANY changes in the wall. I also question the quality of the workmanship of the home and perhaps even drop the manufacturer a not on what you have found. Greg

Re: marriage wall

Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 10:22 pm
by Suzque49
We live in the desert, no prob with snow load.
And we are putting a beam in to support and carry the roof load with additional supports under the home to beef up that area also. (just as you would if you removed a load bearing wall in a stick built home).
I may very well write a letter to the manufacturer but expect that they would not respond, the house was built in 1990.

Re: marriage wall

Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 10:54 am
by Greg
Don't forget to send pictures with the letter. Greg