Bearing wall- this is the wall on which the elements located on the upper floors multi-apartment residential building. It takes on the load of beams, slabs, ordinary partitions and balconies, maintaining the integrity of the entire structure from the roof to the foundation.
If the redevelopment is carried out incorrectly, or the load-bearing wall is demolished or damaged, this will lead to big problems- from cracks in the structure to its collapse.
AiF.ru tells how to determine that a wall is load-bearing.
There are several ways to find out specifications walls:
How to carry out a safe redevelopment?
Only professionals can carry out safe redevelopment of an apartment or house. Regardless of the scale of the reconstruction, it is necessary to invite specialists from the BTI and the Moscow Housing Inspectorate, who, after an engineering examination, will issue you with an official permit for redevelopment, indicating all the walls that can or cannot be demolished.
What punishment awaits a person for unauthorized redevelopment?
Any changes that are made to the housing layout regarding original plan BTI must be agreed with the Moscow Housing Inspectorate. This is required by the housing legislation of the Russian Federation and Moscow.
In the absence of permits, redevelopment is considered unauthorized, and therefore illegal. In this case, according to Art. 7.21 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, you will face a fine for illegal redevelopment in the amount of 2 to 2.5 thousand rubles. For legal entities it is much larger - from 350 thousand to 1 million rubles.
In addition to a fine, for illegal redevelopment of an apartment, the violator is issued an order, according to which the violator will be obliged to either legalize the redevelopment or return the apartment to its original condition.
Wall thickness must be measured in " pure form", that is, do not take into account the thickness of the pasted wallpaper and plaster. Sometimes, in order to take a measurement, it is necessary to drill a through hole in the wall.
Hello. In previous articles I described the features hidden electrical wiring in apartment buildings residential buildings, namely, the conversation was about gating walls. You can let me down summary these articles: crushing load-bearing walls is not recommended apartment buildings. A simple and logical question arises: how to determine which walls are load-bearing and which are not? This is especially important when purchasing new apartment. The destruction of load-bearing walls can be an unpleasant surprise when moving to a new apartment.
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Why determine load-bearing walls in an apartment (office)
The answers to the questions “Why determine load-bearing walls” or “Which load-bearing wall” do not matter at all if you are not planning serious repairs associated with redevelopment and/or laying new hidden electrical wiring. Both redevelopment and electrical installation involve affecting the structures of the premises and, according to the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, require approvals and permits if these structures are load-bearing.
Legally, the question is as clear as possible. Violation of the supporting structures of a house (building) can compromise its strength and lead to its destruction (partial or complete).
In practice, some construction companies, without fear, demolish and hammer walls, admonishing customers that “we do this all the time.” This is not an argument at all, because responsibility for illegal redevelopment and destruction of structures lies with the home owner.
How to independently determine a load-bearing wall
There are a few practical advice, how to determine whether a load-bearing wall is or not.
Brick residential building
Thickness of load-bearing walls in brick house starts from 38 cm. All other walls, 12 cm (one brick), 25 cm (two bricks), 8-12 cm ( lightweight concrete), are partitions.
Load-bearing walls in Khrushchev and Stalin buildings
The design of houses of the “Stalinka” and “Khrushchev” type is demonstrated in the photo.
- 3 longitudinal walls are load-bearing;
- Between them there are load-bearing diaphragms, they keep the load-bearing walls from falling;
- Flights of stairs are supported on load-bearing walls.
All other walls are partitions.
How to determine load-bearing walls in a house: Khrushchev
On the floor plan it will look like this.
Apartment plan Serial apartment building made of panels
We measure the thickness of the wall.
In serial panel houses, the thickness of load-bearing walls is 12, 14, 18, 20 cm. The thickness of partitions in panel houses, that is, walls erected after the construction (assembly) of the house, ranges from 8-10 cm.
Conclusion 1. If the thickness of the wall (without the plaster layer) is less than 10 cm, there is a very high probability that it is not a load-bearing wall, but a partition.
Important! Design panel house is supported by load-bearing walls, and the destruction of a load-bearing wall violates the integrity of the structure of the entire house.
Find out the series of your house and see the architectural layout
Panel apartment buildings serial and each house belongs to a specific series. On the Internet you can find quite complete sites with descriptions and photos of serial panel houses. By house series, you can easily find the authors of the project and the design of your house. The design of the house (apartment) clearly shows the load-bearing walls (they are shaded and/or thicker than the others). An alternative to the project may be communication with the BTI or the management company of your home.
Multi-apartment monolithic building
In new buildings it is a monolith, it is easy to determine load-bearing walls. Load-bearing walls are visible visually. Rovnaya concrete wall, a load-bearing partition made of blocks.
In habitable monolithic houses, somewhat more complicated. A partition is definitely a wall less than 20 cm thick. However, a wall thicker than 20 cm can be either a partition or load-bearing structure. In this case, only the architectural section of the working design will help determine whether the wall is load-bearing or not. The management company must have it. Load-bearing walls will be shaded.
What work is prohibited for load-bearing walls?
In conclusion, there are a few do’s and don’ts for load-bearing walls:
- It is impossible to completely demolish a load-bearing wall in any building () and it is impossible to obtain legal approval for such demolition.
- move a load-bearing wall;
- make an opening in a load-bearing wall without approval and design;
- It is forbidden (in Moscow) to make any furrows for electrical wiring, as well as water and heating pipes. (PPM No. 508)
- Can! Drill load-bearing walls for hanging furniture and appliances, and you can also make through holes in load-bearing walls for passing water pipes, embedded electrical cables, and ventilation.
Conclusion
As you can see, it is quite possible to determine the load-bearing walls in your apartment yourself.
Knowing where the load-bearing walls are located in the apartment, you can understand whether redevelopment with the combination of rooms is feasible. The destruction of load-bearing walls or sections of them disrupts the power structure of the building, which in the future can lead to a weakening of the load-bearing capacity of structures.
In addition, if an inspection by the Moscow Housing Inspectorate reveals such illegal redevelopment, the owner of the apartment will have to pay a fine and, at his own expense, return the apartment to its previous condition.
Even the device of new doorways in load-bearing walls can only be carried out on the basis project documentation with a technical report from the author of the house.
Therefore, before you begin remodeling an apartment, you should determine which walls in it are load-bearing.
This is especially relevant in light of the fact that the majority of standard housing in Moscow is represented by panel houses. Characteristic feature this type of residential building is design diagram with a large number of transverse load-bearing walls.
Typical floor plan of a standard panel house (P-3 series). There are practically no non-load-bearing walls:
In block houses, a similar scheme is used, but load-bearing walls are spaced less frequently (floor of a panel-block house, series II-68):
An exception to this rule are panel and block Khrushchev buildings, as well as monolithic and brick houses, in which a significant part of all transverse walls are non-load-bearing partitions.
The Khrushchev-era scheme consists of three longitudinal load-bearing walls (two external and one internal), the stability of which is ensured by transverse rigidity diaphragms. Plates interfloor ceilings in this case, they can rest either on longitudinal main walls or on beams that lie on these walls. Most of the interior walls in similar houses are partitions, which favors redevelopments.
How to find out if a wall is load-bearing or not?
The definition of load-bearing walls in an apartment is not currently challenging task. If your house belongs to any of the common series, then you can find plans for it on the Internet typical floors and sections on which load-bearing walls are usually allocated. But the easiest way to find out which wall is load-bearing and which is just a partition is to measure its thickness.
The thickness of partitions in any modern standard houses always insignificant and amounts to 8-10 cm.
It is quite easy to determine the load-bearing wall in a block house - they are 50 cm wide. It is difficult to confuse them.
The standard width of load-bearing walls in a panel house is 14, 16, 18 and 20 cm.
It is interesting that sometimes in some houses there are 12-cm load-bearing walls. In addition, there are partitions whose thickness has increased due to layers of plaster, sound insulation, etc., and they can be confused with load-bearing ones. Therefore, the width of the wall is always measured without taking into account the finishing layers.
In such cases, when it is difficult to determine the load-bearing wall, an employee of the design organization conducts an engineering survey. A similar situation can arise in an apartment. standard house, however, most often this happens with old houses, as well as new ones built according to individual project. Employees of the Moscow Housing Inspectorate may require to inspect and prepare a technical report for safety reasons - even for a wall about which the owner is confident that it is 100% non-load-bearing.
You can’t just go and measure a load-bearing wall with a tape measure. Measurements are taken only after the wall in the required place has been cleaned of the finishing.
Employees of APB No. 1 measure the pylon in their office
Load-bearing wall (Fig. 1)– main load-bearing enclosing vertical design building, resting on and transferring the load from the floors and the own weight of the wall to the foundation, separating adjacent rooms in the building and protecting them from impact external environment.
Self-supporting wall (Fig. 2)– external enclosing vertical structure protecting interior spaces building from the influence of the external environment, resting and transferring the load from its own weight to the foundation.
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| Fig.2. Self-supporting wall (outer wall rests on the foundation, and the ceiling is adjacent to the wall) |
Curtain wall (Fig. 3)- an external wall resting on the ceiling within one floor with a floor height of no more than 6 m. (at a higher floor height, these walls are considered self-supporting) and protect the building from the outside from the influence of the external environment.
Partition- an internal vertical enclosing curtain wall resting on the ceiling and separating adjacent rooms in the building.
In buildings with self-supporting and non-load-bearing external walls, loads from coatings, ceilings, etc. transferred to the frame or transverse structures of buildings.
In a house, the walls that stand on the foundation and on which the ceilings rest will be carriers.
And walls standing on a foundation without the ceiling resting on them will be self-supporting.
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| Fig.3. Curtain wall (external wall rests on the floor slab) |
Walls of different structural purposes carry different loads. To ensure the necessary load-bearing capacity for different walls choose a certain wall thickness and the strength of the materials used.
For example, it is recommended to make internal and external load-bearing walls of buildings made of aerated concrete blocks with a height of up to 3 floors inclusive from blocks of classes of compressive strength not lower than B2.5, with glue or mortar of a grade not lower than M75; at a height of up to 2 floors inclusive - not lower than B2 with glue or mortar of a grade not lower than M50.
For self-supporting walls buildings up to 3 floors high, the block class must be at least B2.
Very often we are asked: which wall is load-bearing - and indeed, it is with this question that any redevelopment in the room begins. But why is this so important? The answer is simple - all walls in the room are divided into two categories: load-bearing walls and partitions. Moreover, if the partitions simply divide the room, then the load-bearing walls carry the load of the slabs. Load-bearing walls or only after drawing up and obtaining permission from certified professionals with SRO permits to carry out design work. If you make changes to bearing capacity walls, then the whole house can turn out like a card.
If the redevelopment of an apartment nevertheless entails a violation of the integrity of the load-bearing walls, then this should be done only after the development of a redevelopment project by specialists with SRO approval. The partition walls, in turn, do not carry any load and can be dismantled at the discretion of the designer without any special permits.
Which wall is load-bearing in monolithic houses?
Unlike brick houses external walls in monolithic houses are not always load-bearing and therefore determining which wall is load-bearing in monolithic houses is the most difficult. Such houses are the most differentiated in terms of design and architectural solutions, here you can find not only load-bearing walls, but also load-bearing columns, load-bearing beams and pylons, including those built into partition walls. However, as a rule, carriers concrete structures in monolithic houses they cannot be less than 200 mm in thickness; often this figure reaches 300 and even 350 mm including finishing. However, this is not a final indicator; for example, the thickness of walls in houses made of foam blocks can reach 300 mm or more.
The most reliable way to determine which wall is load-bearing is to request an archived plan of your premises from the developer or management company. Well, in the plan itself, load-bearing walls are always drawn thicker than partitions.
What is the load-bearing wall in panel houses?
Panel houses, as well as monolithic ones, have their own peculiarity: usually the load-bearing wall is solid from the basement to the roof; however, a panel house consists of boxes - rooms in which all the walls play a load-bearing role, with the exception of the outer walls whose task is to retain heat. However, here you can also find partitions, for example, the toilet and bathroom usually consist of partitions.
It is worth noting here that the thickness of the partitions in panel houses is quite small, about 80 - 100 mm. The thickness of load-bearing walls in panel houses starts from 120 and reaches 200 mm, so if the thickness of the wall you measure is greater, do not doubt that it is load-bearing. However, do not forget about finishing the wall; in some cases, a fairly large layer of plaster can be applied to the wall, in some cases up to 60 mm.
Which
wall
carrier
in Khrushchev?
All Khrushchev buildings were built according to the same standard projects in which one can be noted important detail: the scheme consists of three longitudinal load-bearing walls and walls transverse to them. The purpose of these walls is to ensure the stability of the entire structure of the house. Although the transverse walls are not load-bearing, they still carry the load and should be treated carefully. In other words, in order to determine which wall is load-bearing in a Khrushchev building, it is best to request information from the BTI or trust professionals to conduct an examination.
simple techniques
define
what kind of load-bearing wall:
- Walls that face flights of stairs- always carriers.
- The partition between the bathroom and the toilet is most often not load-bearing. As well as a partition between the bathroom or toilet and the corridor.
- Load-bearing walls are always the thickest in the apartment. However, this rule does not apply to walls made of foam concrete. Walls made of foam blocks are not load-bearing.
- Interfloor slabs always rest on load-bearing walls; you just have to raise your head and look at the joints of the slabs to see how they are laid.
- Contact the BTI in your area or management company your home and request architectural plan your house.
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