On Jan 5, 8:23*am, Matt wrote:
I'm planning to finish my basement and would like to take one side of
the stairwell wall and cut it down to a half-wall to open things up a
little. *Before I do this, I just want to make sure I'm not removing
bearing elements, or if I do, replace their load bearing capacity
somehow. *I've taken a few pics, linked below.

Pic Ahttp://img834.imageshack.us/i/15923046.jpg/*is just a photo
from the basement looking up the stairs. *The stairs turn left at the
landing and go up another 5 steps. *The bottom half of the stairs run
parallel with the joists, which are mostly TJI's. *The two TJI's i the
middle terminate at this cross-member, which is a 2x10. *To the side
of the TJI's and running directly above the stairwell walls are the
two 2x10's (or 2x12's...not sure). *They are a little darker in color
than the TJI's.

Pic Bhttp://img838.imageshack.us/i/90207730.jpg/is a look at the
stairwell from the basement. *The exposed studs there are the ones I
want to cut down to make that side of the stairwell a half wall.

Pic Chttp://img842.imageshack.us/i/42380765.jpg/is focused on the
2x10 that runs directly above the wall I want to remove. *I am
pointing to it.

Pic Dhttp://img547.imageshack.us/i/58100373.jpgis the junction of
the 2x10 and the cross member, showing that the cross member is hung
from those 2x10's with joist hangers. *The cross member appears
thicker than a 2x10, but on second thought, it's probably just because
it is drywalled on one side.

Pic Ehttp://img337.imageshack.us/i/52719782.jpg/is looking down the
stairs. *That rectangular piece at the top of the pic is the part I
was saying that someone really tall would bump their head on, and the
bottom 10" is formed by the cross member described above.

Pic Fhttp://img18.imageshack.us/i/98494464.jpg/is another shot of
the wall, showing what I want to do. *I basically want to make this a
half-wall to open up the stairwell into the basement to give it a more
open feeling. *I just want to make sure when I remove the top half or
so of those studs, I'm not removing bearing elements, or if I do, that
I properly replace their capacity somehow.

I will probably have a contractor come take a look, but I'd like some
thoughts from people *here as well


Generally speaking load bearing walls in homes run perpendicular
(90 degrees) to the load bearing elements they are supporting
(floor joists, roof rafters)...

The side walls on your staircase appear in your pictures to only
be enclosing the staircase and not supporting any loads...

The 2x10's on either side of your staircase as you are pointing
to in Pic C are not being supported by those side walls, they are
installed to carry the load being transferred onto the 2x10 cross
member (shown in Pic A) carrying the cut ends of the two
engineered I-beam floor joists which have been cut to allow for
the floor opening for the staircase... The 2x10 joists in Pic C
are transferring the load of those two I-beam floor joists to the
structure which is carrying either end of the other I-beam floor
joists in your house...

It would be more important to see what is behind your staircase
and confirm that the other end of those 2x10's are running over
to the opposite exterior wall of the house or the center carrying
beam and are being supported by either the center beam or the
sill plate on the other exterior wall... Your contractor will be able
to confirm this for you...

Sadly you are stuck with the situation you describe in Pic E
without making structural modifications to the house to relocate
that cross member closer to the exterior wall (which would mean
relocating anything directly above the area you wish to move
that cross member to and cutting the engineered I-beam floor
joists to create the additional head room in the staircase, then
reframing that 2x10 cross member at the new end of the I-beam
flooring members) which is much more involved than removing the
side walls on the staircase...

Since the staircase side wall is non-bearing you could open it
all the way up as opposed to the half-wall idea in Pic F and
install a railing with balusters if you wanted opening it up even
more...

~~ Evan