General Building (B) · Lesson 4 of 7

Load Paths, Headers, and Bearing Walls

"Load Paths, Headers, and Bearing Walls" is lesson 4 of 7 in the General Building (B) Learning Hub. It opens with "A Load Path Is a Continuous Line to the Ground" and works through 5 short steps, then a worked example you can check yourself against.

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Steps in this lesson

  1. A Load Path Is a Continuous Line to the Ground
  2. What Makes a Wall "Bearing"
  3. What a Header Does
  4. Bigger Openings and Heavier Loads Need Bigger Headers
  5. Tracing a Load Path, Top to Bottom

The worked example in the course applies this lesson to a realistic job in 4 steps, from "Check what's directly above the wall in the framing" through "Verify the new load path continues all the way down".

What you'll be able to do

  • Explain the main idea of "Load Paths, Headers, and Bearing Walls" in plain language you can use on the exam.
  • Apply this step with confidence: "What a Header Does".
  • Apply this step with confidence: "Bigger Openings and Heavier Loads Need Bigger Headers".
  • Apply this step with confidence: "Tracing a Load Path, Top to Bottom".
  • Test yourself on the worked example and the quick-check quiz inside the classroom.
LOAD PATHS, HEADERS, BEARING WALLS A continuous line from roof to soil ROOF LOAD top plate bottom plate footing soil - spreads the load A continuous path, top to bottom: roof->top plate->studs->bottom plate->footing->soil HEADER AT AN OPENING HEADER opening king stud king stud trimmer trimmer IS THIS WALL BEARING? Joists/rafters land ON TOP -> YES, it is bearing Framing SPANS OVER it -> No, it's a partition CC
The diagram for this lesson, exactly as it appears in the Learning Hub.

The first steps of this lesson

Step 1: A Load Path Is a Continuous Line to the Ground

Every pound of weight in a building - roof, floors, snow, people, furniture - has to travel down through a continuous, unbroken structural path until it reaches the foundation and then the soil. If any link in that chain is missing (a wall removed without support, a beam that doesn't land on something solid below it), the load has nowhere to go, and something has to fail to find a new path.

Step 2: What Makes a Wall "Bearing"

A bearing wall carries vertical load from above (roof, floor, or another wall) down to the structure below it - it's doing real structural work, not just dividing rooms. A non-bearing (partition) wall carries only its own weight. The clue: what's directly above it in the framing - if joists or a beam land on top of that wall, it's bearing; if the framing spans over it without touching, it's not.

The remaining 3 steps, the worked example and the quiz are in the course. This is a preview. The full lesson, with the step-by-step explanations, a worked example and a quick-check quiz, is inside the classroom.

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