Attic Trusses Resting On Non Bearing Wall

If your roof is trusses no walls internally are load bearing only the external walls are.

Attic trusses resting on non bearing wall.

Chances are this is a non bearing wall. Actually a quick way to determine if the wall is bearing is to cut hole at the top to see if it has one or two top plates. Non load bearing walls non loadbearing walls must comply with the requirements specified in the relevant standards as appropriate to the material. Interior walls might be load bearing or may not be.

If there are two plates refer to an engineer. Ceiling joists that meet over the wall indicate that it s a bearing wall. It is carrying the weight of the ceiling. If there is a column that supports the truss found in the wall the wall still would not be load bearing because the column is taking the load.

If the support point is at a truss panel point additional load could be put on the element supporting the non bearing wall thus causing distress. This is sometimes done by a homeowner to provide cleared space in the attic for storage but destroys the structural integrity of the truss. A beam directly under a wall usually means that it s a bearing wall whether the beam is in a crawl space basement or on the main floor. The outside walls are supporting the roof so they re bearing walls.

One top plate and a space between the bottom chord of the truss and the top of the wall non load bearing. Unfortunately my home builder had framed out the attic using a common truss system utilizing 2x4 s see attached picture of exact type although my roof is much steeper and no middle non bearing wall below. There may still not be any interior bearing walls but you should check carefully. When joists trusses are perpendicular to the wall and bear on the top of the wall that wall is bearing wall.

If there is a truss over the wall the wall is probably not load bearing since the truss bears the load. The concern is that when the truss deflects the non bearing wall could be an effective support point. 3 only part of the roof framing may be trusses and the rest is rafters as in the photo below. An example of a load bearing wall call be seen on the right.