I'm in the middle of a kitchen renovation where my contractor is redoing the island. The kitchen was previously expanded by a former owner, and what you see now is the old exterior wall made of brick and cinder blocks. There are two pillars flanking the island, and one of them had about 4 inches of wood running vertically inside from the brick wall to the ceiling. My contractor insists this isn't a load bearing pillar and has cut through it, claiming it was just for aesthetics. Should I be worried about this decision?
2 Answers
Since it's an exterior wall, it was likely load bearing originally. When they remodeled, they should’ve added headers over any openings. You really should check to see if there are proper headers in place to support the roof above. That could be crucial to know if those pillars were really needed or just overkill.
Definitely! A structural engineer could really help clarify if everything is safe. It's better to be safe than sorry!
It sounds a bit strange to have all that lumber in there just for looks. If it was truly non-load bearing, they wouldn’t need that kind of support. You might want to be a bit cautious; it's worth keeping an eye on what happens next.
Exactly! Think of the whole area as a ‘window’ of the house. If there’s a solid header installed above, those posts might not be necessary at all. It’s puzzling why they’d pack so much lumber in there otherwise, though. Might be worth digging into what's going on inside that other pillar too.