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I'm fairly certain this is a load bearing wall as the beam in the basement is directly below this wall.

My question is, shouldn't the area pointed at with the white arrows have a header if this is a load bearing wall? There's another door opening that goes all the way to the ceiling on the right side of the TV wall as well.

My intentions here are to open up that wall as a window pass through to the kitchen, keeping the columns intact (the light blue area as an example).

I'm not sure what's inside the column or if that's what's bearing the load.

So basically 2 questions:

Why is there no header for the full height doorways?

Do I need to add a header that spans the width of that area, or would removing those 2 studs in the middle be fine regardless?

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  • Hello, and welcome to Home Improvement. What's above this floor, and would you add pictures if possible? And, you should probably take our tour so you'll know how best to participate here.
    – Daniel Griscom
    Oct 6, 2019 at 12:33
  • Above this is the 2nd floor, specifically a wall separating 2 rooms. I'll check out the tour, thanks
    – daveclever
    Oct 6, 2019 at 17:31

2 Answers 2

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Why is there no header for the full height doorways?

I can think of two possibilities:

  1. The wall is structurally unsound due to the missing support and if so, you should see some signs of that. (i.e. sagging, drywall cracking, etc.)
  2. The wall is designed such that the unsupported span load is carried by the support on either side of the doorway opening.

Number 2 is most likely the case in my opinion.

Do I need to add a header that spans the width of that area, or would removing those 2 studs in the middle be fine regardless?

That's a question for a structural engineer. The loading from whatever this wall is supporting needs to be analyzed and an appropriate structure to transfer the load needs to be designed. There is in no way adequate information in this question posting to provide an answer and, in fact, you will likely need engineer-stamped plans for your building permit application.

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  1. There is probably a flush beam there that is installed up in the roof or floor system. You just hanger the joists into the flush beam instead of resting them on top of a dropped beam.

Example of a flush beam

  1. Definitely add a header there if it's a bearing wall and you're removing studs.
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