Structural Engineer for Load-Bearing Wall Removal

Removing an interior wall is the most common way homeowners open up a closed floor plan — and it is the single most common residential project that requires a licensed structural engineer. Before that wall comes out, someone has to determine what it is carrying and design what will carry it instead.

A load-bearing wall is not just a partition. It is a structural element carrying weight from everything above it: the ceiling, the floor above, sometimes a second story, sometimes the roof. That weight is distributed continuously along the length of the wall, and the wall carries it straight down into the foundation.

When you remove that wall, the load does not go away. It has to be rerouted. A beam takes the distributed load the wall was carrying and concentrates it into two or more points. Those points need posts. Those posts need something solid underneath them — often a new footing, all the way down in the basement or crawlspace.

Get that chain right and you get the open floor plan you wanted. Get it wrong and you get sagging floors, doors that stop closing, cracked drywall along the ceiling — and in the worst cases, structural failure. Those failures are rarely dramatic. They are slow, expensive, and they show up long after the contractor has been paid.

A complete, permit-ready structural engineering package for your wall removal.

A licensed engineer determines whether the wall is actually load-bearing — and what it carries. Joist direction, the framing above, what stacks on it between floors, and whether it carries a concentrated point load at any location. Many walls are partially bearing, a distinction homeowners and contractors routinely miss. If you want to understand the indicators yourself first, we wrote a full guide on how to tell if a wall is load-bearing.

We size the beam that replaces the wall — LVL, glulam, or steel — depending on span, load, and how much ceiling depth you are willing to give up. We design for strength and for deflection, because a beam that is strong enough but still flexes will crack your new drywall. More on what actually replaces the wall.

The beam delivers its load to posts, and the posts deliver it to the ground. We design the posts, the connections, the bearing details, and any new footing required beneath them. This is the part most often overlooked — and the part that causes the failures.

The structure has to be supported while the wall is out and before the beam is in. We specify how, because this is a safety-critical step and it is where people get hurt.

Stamped structural drawings and calculations your building department will accept and your contractor can build from. Most jurisdictions will not permit a load-bearing wall removal without them.

We hear this often, and it deserves a direct answer.

Many contractors are highly experienced and read houses well. But a contractor is not a licensed structural engineer, does not carry professional liability for the structural judgment, and cannot produce the sealed drawings your permit requires. When a contractor is wrong about a wall — and it happens — the homeowner absorbs the consequences.

There is also a subtler failure mode. A wall can be non-bearing along most of its length and still carry a concentrated point load at one location, where a beam or post above lands on it. Remove the whole wall and you have removed the only thing supporting that point. This is not something you can determine by knocking on drywall.

An engineering assessment costs a fraction of the project and converts an opinion into a sealed, permit-ready determination. If the wall turns out to be non-bearing, you have that in writing too — which is worth having at resale.

Strut Engineering & Investment, Inc. is a licensed structural engineering firm founded by Emad Badiee, who holds a BS and MS in Civil-Structural Engineering, has more than 16 years of experience, and is licensed in 28 states and the District of Columbia. Every project is assigned a dedicated licensed structural engineer.

Our background is in forensic engineering — investigating why buildings fail. That work teaches you exactly where structures are weakest, and a striking number of residential structural problems trace back to a wall someone removed without understanding what it was holding up. We have seen how these go wrong, which is a useful thing in an engineer designing how they go right.

Our team also includes a Director of Construction who is a licensed General Contractor in Georgia, so our drawings are built to be built from. We serve homeowners, architects, and contractors across Greater Atlanta and throughout Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, and New Jersey, including single-family residential projects of every size. Planning to build up as well as out? See our second-story addition engineering services.

Yes. Confirming whether a wall is load-bearing requires an engineer, and if it is, removing it requires a beam and support system that must be designed and — in nearly every jurisdiction — sealed by a licensed engineer before a permit will be issued.

There are strong indicators: walls running perpendicular to the floor joists, walls that stack directly above one another between floors, walls with a beam or post below them in the basement, and exterior walls. But indicators are not confirmation, and walls can carry concentrated point loads even when they look like partitions. Only a structural engineer can confirm it.

A contractor can offer an opinion, but they cannot produce the sealed drawings a permit requires, and they do not carry professional liability for the structural judgment. If the wall is misidentified, you absorb the consequences.

In nearly every jurisdiction, yes — and the permit application typically requires stamped structural drawings. Removing a bearing wall without a permit tends to surface later, during resale or an insurance claim, and is expensive to resolve retroactively.

A beam — commonly an LVL or a steel beam — supported by posts at each end, which transfer load down to the foundation, often requiring a new footing. The beam can be dropped below the ceiling (less expensive, visible) or installed flush within the floor framing (cleaner ceiling, more expensive).

The assessment and design are typically a matter of days to a couple of weeks depending on complexity and site access. We give you a timeline when we scope the project.

Before the wall comes out, find out what it carries. Strut E&I will assess it, design what replaces it, and give you permit-ready sealed drawings.

Call (404) 480-5555, email info@struteni.com, or contact our team to request a wall assessment. You can also browse our full range of structural engineering services.