Basements, Attics and Crawl Spaces - Wall Removal

House is a 1960's era block and stucco rancher with a full basement. The foundation measures 48 x 28 feet. About 10 feet from one end, parallel to the floor joists, a block wall divides the basement. There is a 36-inch wide opening near one end of this wall, allowing access to what is the laundry and a storage area. The wall also provides one of the support points for the floor joist center beam. It isn't something that was added later - it was clearly put in when the foundation was built.

Other that the obvious (floor joist support), I can't see any structural reason for this wall to exist. I want to remove about half of it to create a single, larger storage space. Is this a good idea? I know I should probably consult with a structural engineer but thought I'd start here first.

This may or may not be a good thing. Your structural engineer is the one to ask about this. Good Luck

Yes, I suppose you're right. It certainly will make my renovation a lot better if I can just remove 8 feet of this wall from one end. After removing some paneling and furring strips, I notice that the wall is not integral with the outside foundation walls; that is, the wall's blocks do not interlock with the foundation wall blocks. Just one more thing that tells me the wall is nothing more than a pretty expensive way to divide off a space.

Upon further inspection you may be correct. Is the wall holding up any beams which run perpendicular with and under your floor joists. If not you are probably correct. Let me know.

As I said, the wall does provide one support point for the main beam that runs down the center of the house, perpendicular to the floor joists. The other support points, besides the two foundation end walls, are block piers.

The length of the wall in question is about 27 feet, with the main beam supported right in the middle. The existing doorway opening (36 inches wide) is centered approximately 8 feet in from the rear outside wall. What I want to do is remove the portion of the wall between the door opening and the outside wall, leaving the other approximately 17 feet in place.

You could look into a post jack that they make to hold up the beam and put one under the beam by that wall as you take it out. So you have a back up;) ED

Thanks. I had thought of that. However, since there would still be about 4 feet of wall between the edge of the door opening and the area where the wall supports the beam, I wasn't sure it was necessary.

Well, after getting a professional OK, I removed the 8-ft section of wall. Now, my problem is that the wall was put up before the floor slab was poured. The bottom course of block has about 2 inches sticking up above the floor and the blocks are filled with mortar. I need to somehow chisel them down below the slab level and fill in the gap so the floor is flat and I can install linoleum.

Is this something a hammer drill with a chisel would work for? I'm sure a jackhammer would work but I think that's overkill. I've worked at manually chiseling but the going is way too slow.

You could rent an electric breaker. It's not exactly an air powered jackhammer, but you would be done by the end of the day. The rental cost shouldn't be too bad and once the job is done you probably would be grateful.

Oh, I'm certain I'd be grateful. Taking down the wall was a piece of cake compared to this little bit that's left.

What exactly is an electric breaker? If I go to a rental place is that what it would be called? I've heard of electric jackhammers and hammer drills; is this something in between? I've done a lot of remodeling over the years but this masonry stuff is new to me.

Just tell them what you have to do and they will get the right tool for you to use;) ED

So right. After explaining what I needed to do, they recommended a demolition hammer. It worked like a charm, and I finished the task in about an hour.