You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
I have a closet in the right back corner of my garage that uses the right wall and the back wall of my garage and has a verticle support in the front left of it. I want to open it up to make a small work bench area. It is directly under the stairs. How do I know if I can cut away the front left verticle support of the closet so it can be opened. Outside the closet and to its left is additional space where a refrigerator used to be, so I could use that space as well if I didn't have the left support of the closet to contend with.
How do I know if I can get rid of this support, and/or who do i call to get them to tell me if I can get rid of this verticle support?
Without a clearer description of the problem or a good drawing of the area or even a photograph ... it seems unlikely you can get a reliable answer here. Critical support poles or weight bearing walls ought to be self evident. I'd look in the area above the ceiling to see how long and how rigid the trusses or beams are above it ... before you begin removing potentially necessary support for the ceiling and whatever is above it. Kelly
I don't think they would have put it in if it wasn't necessary--anytime you've got support posts like that they're always in the way of something so they wouldn't put them in if they didn't need to. However, it's possible that it doesn't need to be exactly in the spot it's in now, so maybe they could install another support that's out of your way a little more and then take this one out. I'd get a contractor out to look at it though, they can tell you for sure whether it's necessary and whether it has to be in that exact spot or not.
You can call the building inspector, an architect, a general contractor, or a forming and framing carpenter. Having said that, it's highly unlikely that a support under a set of stairs is "unnecessary."
