How Do You Know if a Wall Is Load Bearing?

Published on Aug 27, 2025

Hey folks! This is Kolten from Next Gen Remodels.

Welcome to another Q&A session where I answer questions from y'all on the internet.

Today's question is:

"How Do You Know if a Wall Is Load Bearing?"

 "How Do You Know if a Wall Is Load Bearing?"

Answer from Kolten

So with load-bearing walls, knowing if it actually is load bearing or not, you can tell a couple of ways. So you want to go outside, take a look at the roof, see which way the peak of the roof is going. And what you can do is determine from which exterior walls is the peak running non-parallel with.

Does that make sense? So essentially, let's say we have the peak of the house here. If we have a wall running this way in the peak, then that's going to be supporting the trusses. If it is running parallel with the trusses, that's how you know it's not load bearing, because it's not spanned across each truss.

Short Summary

Kolten redfield explained that checking the roof's peak direction relative to the wall can determine if it's supporting trusses; walls running non-parallel to the peak are typically load-bearing.