page_title: Load-bearing wall
section_title: Housing
hierarchical_section_title: Load-bearing wall / Application / Housing
caption_attribution_description: English: A beam of parallel strand lumber, commercially known as Parallam. The 17ft x 19in x 7.5in beam was installed in a ground-floor rental unit to replace a load-bearing wall and create an open space between the living room and kitchen. Français&#160;: Une poutre de Parallel Strand Lumber, plus connu sous son nom commercial de Parallam. La poutre de 17pi x 19po x 7.5po a été installée dans une unité locative de rez-de-chaussée afin de remplacer un mur porteur et créer une aire ouverte entre le salon et la cuisine.
context_page_description: A load-bearing wall or bearing wall is a wall that is an active structural element of a building, which holds the weight of the elements above it, by conducting its weight to a foundation structure below it.
  Load-bearing walls are one of the earliest forms of construction. The development of the flying buttress in Gothic architecture allowed structures to maintain an open interior space, transferring more weight to the buttresses instead of to central bearing walls. In housing, load-bearing walls are most common in the light construction method known as "platform framing". In the birth of the skyscraper era, the concurrent rise of steel as a more suitable framing system first designed by William Le Baron Jenney, and the limitations of load-bearing construction in large buildings, led to a decline in the use of load-bearing walls in large-scale commercial structures.
context_section_description: In housing, load-bearing walls are most common in the light construction method known as "platform framing", and each load-bearing wall sits on a wall sill plate which is mated to the lowest base plate. The sills are bolted to the masonry or concrete foundation.
  The top plate or ceiling plate is the top of the wall, which sits just below the platform of the next floor (at the ceiling). The base plate or floor plate is the bottom attachment point for the wall studs. Using a top plate and a bottom plate, a wall can be constructed while it lies on its side, allowing for end-nailing of the studs between two plates, and then the finished wall can be tipped up vertically into place atop the wall sill; this not only improves accuracy and shortens construction time, but also produces a stronger wall.
caption: A beam of PSL lumber installed to replace a load-bearing wall at the first floor of a three-story building.
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