Renovating apartment, but we're worried about a load bearing wall (floor, architect)

[cnfacc]

Hi City-Data / Architecture forum,

We're currently in the process of renovating our apartment, but we're concerned whether a wall was load bearing.

We originally wanted to open up the kitchen, but was told the wall we wanted to remove was load bearing.

Our contractor then came in and poked around and told us it wasn't load bearing.

They then told us that the wall had to come down regardless and could be rebuilt again if we're worried.

The problem is that now we're worried and I was hoping you could provide some insight or opinion of whether the wall we took down was load bearing or not.

I've already started to look into getting a structural engineer to come in and evaluate.

I would appreciate your thoughts very much, thanks in advance!

Pictures of the interior below.

[findinghope]

am I wrong in thinking that as far as apartments and condos where you have shared walls, floors, ceilings, that you are actually not allowed to change things in this manner?

[cnfacc]

Originally Posted by findinghope

am I wrong in thinking that as far as apartments and condos where you have shared walls, floors, ceilings, that you are actually not allowed to change things in this manner?

We've talked to the building manager and super, and they both have said that you just can't touch any load bearing walls.

Here's a picture of the column and wall before it was taken down.



To give some more details:

The column was hollow and was made out of 4 wooden posts on the corners. Then dry wall on the posts.
The two beams connecting on the ceiling are bolted to each other. And I think I remember welding, too.

[chet everett]

First, unless these are the most deceptive photos ever it certainly looks like there are two structural steel support column that have been exposed. It would almost certainly NOT be cost effective to relocate these in any kind of a multi-unit building. You would need to hire a qualified engineer architect to sign off on any modifications.

Second the "four wooden posts" hollow column almost certainly was decorative. If you do not want to rebuild it for visual reasons I really doubt it needs to be there for any structural reason BUT it appears that there was / is electrical wiring running inside the overhead bulkhead / chase that was opened up and it very well may be that running wires internally behind the steel columns is difficult / impossible so that needs to hashed out.

I assume that these interior alterations are being done with all required permits in place which generally requires submitting architectural and engineering drawing to appropriate authorities as well as scheduling all on-site inspections. I would think the management of your multi-unit building would demand this.

[cnfacc]

Hi Chet,

Thanks for the response.

We're definitely not relocating any steel columns or beams. We only want the kitchen opened up a bit somehow and to redo the floors and tiles.

The uncertainty we had was with the column (which we were told by the previous tenant was decorative only) and the wall behind it.

We definitely went through the building management and submitted all the paperwork they requested until they gave us the go ahead to start.

Management said we could build a pass through, but the contractor said they had to poke around anyway to determine what they're dealing with before they actually took anything out (this is the photo with the column in place).

After this, they told us it was not load bearing and they would take the wall down to rebuild it with our pass through, and that's how it came to where we are now.

Thank you again for your help!