A brief guide to demolishing interior walls

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Half a century-old houses often have the narrow, corridor design with seemingly suffocating room types. Not that those are bad but these days, socialization is the norm and we're breaking barriers like never before. Open floor plans where living and dining rooms plus the kitchen become interconnected without any wall interruptions are being used by interior architects and designers to harness space and leave room for human interaction. Even more cosmopolitan apartments and condominiums employ this layout. 

So the challenge really is how you would incorporate these concepts into your outdated interior architecture. Surely, it will not be easy and it would entail costs but we're here to guide you by demonstrating that breaking walls can be a fun DIY thing. Go ahead and find out why!

​Partition or Load

The first step is to determine what type of wall you have. This is measured by its thickness. A load bearing wall carries the weight of the roof or floors above or basically the weight of your house. The weight here that is transferred at any point of the house is called the load. Load-bearing walls are those built primarily after the framework of the home and they adjoin each other especially from perpendicular points. You would not want to demolish this kind. 

Partition walls, on the other hand, simply divide the interiors of your home. More often, partition walls create hollow sound when you knock on their base with the use of your fist. You will have to consider here the material of the wall, whether it is brick, wood, stone, concrete or a mix of any of the foregoing. Consult with structural engineers or building inspectors to guide you.

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