Open-Concept Starts With the Right Beam

You can suspect it but you cannot be sure without looking at the structure. Walls that run perpendicular to the floor joists, walls that stack over a beam or wall in the basement, walls under a point where the roof changes, and exterior walls are usually bearing. Walls that run parallel to the joists often are not — but not always. A structural engineer confirms it by looking at the framing, and that confirmation is part of every wall-removal project we do.

Yes. It is a structural alteration under the Ontario Building Code and every municipality in the GTA requires a building permit for it, with an engineer's design for the beam and its supports. The inspector checks the framing before it is closed in. Doing it without a permit is a problem at sale time — it will come up on an inspection — and it means nobody checked the beam.

The structural work itself — shoring, removal, beam and posts — is a matter of days once the permit is in hand and the beam is on site. The finish work around it depends on what else the room is getting: in a kitchen renovation the wall removal is one step inside a project that typically takes about three weeks on site.

Flush if the structure allows it and you want a flat ceiling, which is most open-concept kitchens. It costs more because every joist has to be cut and hung on the beam with engineered hangers, and the beam has to fit inside the joist depth. A dropped beam is quicker and works where joists cannot be cut, but it leaves a bulkhead. The engineer's calculation will tell you whether a flush beam is possible for your span and load.

It gets rerouted, and it is planned before demolition rather than found during it. Ducts move to the floor system or a bulkhead; supply lines are easy to move; a main drain stack is the one item that can change the design, because it may be cheaper to shift the beam than the stack. We open a small inspection hole early so the plan is built around what is actually in there.

Not if it is done properly. Temporary shoring on both sides carries the load the whole time the wall is out, the beam is sized by the engineer for deflection as well as strength, and the load is transferred to the beam before the shoring comes down. Hairline drywall cracks at the corners of the opening are the most anyone should see, and those are patched at finish.

That is how most of them happen. Our Mississauga open-concept kitchen project story is exactly that: a flush LVL beam replacing the wall between the kitchen and the family room, permitted through the City of Mississauga with engineering and ESA inspections included, inside a full kitchen renovation. One contract, one permit set, one schedule.