An open concept remodel comes down to one question about every wall you want gone: is it holding up the house? A wall that carries nothing usually comes out for $1,500 to $5,000.
A load bearing wall is a different project. Replaced with an engineered beam and posts, it averages about $5,700 and runs past $10,000 on a long span in a two story home. It also needs drawings, a permit and an inspection before anyone swings a hammer.
That gap isn’t really about the wall. It’s about where the weight goes once the wall is gone, and the path it takes runs further down into your house than almost anyone expects. In an older Wilkes-Barre home it’s the thing most likely to move your number, and it has nothing to do with the beam.
What an open concept remodel actually is
Stripped of the design language, an open concept remodel is one thing: you take out interior walls so two or three rooms read as one space. Usually that’s the kitchen opening into the dining room, or the dining room opening into the living room.
Everything else in the project follows from that. The new flooring, the ceiling patch, the relocated switches and the reworked heating all exist because a wall left the room.
So the wall is the project. And walls fall into two categories that have almost nothing in common:
- Partition walls divide space and carry nothing but their own weight and whatever’s screwed to them. Coming out, they’re a demolition job.
- Load bearing walls carry the floor above, the roof, or both, down toward the foundation. Coming out, they’re a structural alteration, and the work is engineered, permitted and inspected.
Same drywall on both. Completely different projects behind it. If you’re weighing this as part of a bigger job, it’s worth reading how the full scope of a whole house remodel changes when structural work enters the picture.
How to tell if the wall is load bearing
You can do a lot of this yourself, in an afternoon, with a flashlight. Here’s what actually tells you something.
Look at the joists first
Go to the basement and find the floor joists, the repeating parallel framing members that hold up the floor above. Note which direction they run.
A wall that runs perpendicular to the joists is almost certainly carrying them. A wall that runs parallel to them, sitting in the space between two joists, is usually just a partition. This is the single most useful test a homeowner can run.
If your basement is finished and the joists are hidden, the attic works the same way. From outside, the ridge of the roof is a clue too, because joists usually run at right angles to it.
Find the main carrying beam
While you’re down there, look for the main beam, the heavy member running the length of the house with posts or piers under it. Anything sitting directly above that beam is bearing weight, no exceptions.
Check whether walls stack
Load travels straight down. If the wall you want to remove has another wall sitting directly on top of it on the second floor, it’s part of the structure. Walls that stack floor to floor are carrying something.
Assume the exterior walls are bearing
Exterior walls almost always are. In houses built in the last fifty years, sometimes only the front and back exterior walls carry load. In older homes, which is most of Luzerne County’s stock, all four usually do.
Where homeowner detective work stops
Here’s the limit worth being honest about. These tests can confirm a wall is carrying load. They can’t reliably prove one isn’t.
Plenty of walls fail every visual test and still turn out to be structural. A wall might pick up a partial span. It might have become bearing when someone remodeled upstairs in 1978.
It might carry a point load from a roof member you can’t see from the basement. Older homes across Luzerne County have been modified by people who left no drawings behind.
A structural engineer settles it. A load bearing wall analysis typically runs $250 to $1,000, and a site visit with beam calculations lands around $500 to $1,200. Most homeowners spend somewhere between $350 and $800 on this piece. Against a five figure project, it’s the cheapest certainty you’ll buy.
The beam, the posts, and where the weight really goes
Take out a bearing wall and you’ve removed something that was spreading its load evenly across twelve or sixteen feet of floor. A beam goes in to span that opening and hold up what the wall was holding.
But a beam doesn’t spread load. It collects it and dumps it at both ends, into posts. That’s the whole story, and it’s the part the cost guides skip.
Those two posts now carry, at two small spots, everything the wall used to carry along its entire length. And they can’t simply rest on the floor. Each one needs continuous support all the way down: through the floor framing, onto a post or column below, onto a footing sized to take a concentrated load without settling.
In practice that’s where projects find their surprises:
- A post lands over a basement joist bay with nothing beneath it, so a new column and footing get added below.
- The existing footing is a standard residential pad that wasn’t sized for a concentrated load, so it gets enlarged.
- The load path runs through a finished basement ceiling that has to be opened, then closed again.
- On a slab home, the slab alone won’t take the point load, so a footing gets cut in.
None of that is exotic. All of it costs money that never appears in a quote written before anyone looked underneath. It’s a good example of the kind of hidden cost that catches homeowners mid project when the structural work wasn’t scoped properly up front.
Flush or dropped
Your engineer will specify one of two beam positions, and it changes how the finished room looks.
A flush beam sits up inside the floor framing, so the ceiling stays flat and the opening reads as if no beam exists. It’s the better looking result. It also needs more joist modification, hangers on every joist, and often a deeper or stronger member, so it costs more. Sometimes the existing joist depth simply won’t accommodate it.
A dropped beam hangs below the ceiling line, like a wide header. Less work, less money, and it’s occasionally the only option a long span allows. Plenty of homeowners end up liking it, wrapped and trimmed, because it defines where one space ends and the next begins.
LVL or steel
Laminated veneer lumber is the default for residential work. It arrives as engineered lumber, fastens into wood framing with standard hardware, and handles most household spans at a reasonable price, roughly $3 to $12 per linear foot for the material.
Steel comes out when the span is long or the load is heavy, at roughly $6 to $20 per linear foot, plus the crane or crew of bodies needed to get it into a room. This isn’t a preference you pick from a catalog. The span and the load pick it for you, and the engineer writes it down.
What’s inside the wall matters as much as what’s on top of it
Before the structure question is settled, there’s a second one: what’s living in that wall right now?
Interior walls are where a house hides its systems. Removing one means everything running through it needs a new home:
- Electrical almost always. Outlets, switches and the circuit feeding the room above get rerouted, at roughly $50 to $150 an hour.
- Plumbing if the wall backs a kitchen or bath. Supply and drain lines are far harder to move than wires because drains need fall, and plumbers run about $45 to $200 an hour.
- HVAC ducts and returns, at roughly $25 to $55 per linear foot to relocate.
- Gas lines feeding a range or a wall heater, at about $15 to $25 per linear foot.
Two things about older homes deserve a heads up. Plaster and lath demolition costs more than drywall and makes far more mess.
And in a house built before the late 1970s, joint compound, floor tile and pipe wrap can contain asbestos, which turns demolition into abatement at $5 to $20 per square foot. A pre demolition test is cheap. Finding out mid job is not.
The reason this matters as much as the beam is scheduling. Every system in that wall brings a trade, and several bring their own inspection. That’s what turns a two day structural job into a multi week sequence, and it’s why the order in which work gets done matters so much on a project like this.
What it costs in 2026
Real numbers, with the caveat that every one of them moves with the span, the number of floors above and what’s buried in the wall.
| Piece of the job | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Non structural partition removal | $1,500 to $5,000 |
| Load bearing wall, single story home | $1,200 to $3,000 |
| Load bearing wall, two or three story home | $3,200 to $10,000 |
| National average, all load bearing removals | about $5,700 |
| Long span with a large engineered beam | $10,000 to $20,000 |
| Structural engineer, analysis and calculations | $250 to $1,200 |
| Beam and installation | about $3,300 typical |
| Demolition, drywall wall | $0.30 to $0.45 per sq ft |
| Demolition, plaster wall | $0.45 to $0.75 per sq ft |
| Demolition, brick wall | $2.90 to $6.40 per sq ft |
| Asbestos abatement, if found | $5 to $20 per sq ft |
The two headline figures look like they disagree, and they don’t. The $5,700 average includes short interior runs in single story homes. The $10,000 to $20,000 band is what a long opening under two floors of house costs once you add an engineered beam, new bearing points and the footings underneath them.
New footings, plaster, asbestos and rerouted plumbing are the four things most likely to move your quote, and all four are knowable before work starts if someone opens up the right spots and looks.
Permits and inspections in Pennsylvania
You need a permit. This isn’t a gray area in Pennsylvania and it isn’t worth a conversation.
Under 34 Pa. Code 403.62, ordinary repairs don’t require a permit, but the code names four things that are specifically not ordinary repairs. The first one on the list is cutting away a load bearing wall, partition or portion of a wall. Relocating plumbing, gas, waste, vent or electrical is on the same list, which catches almost every open concept job even when the wall turns out to be a partition.
What that means in practice:
- Sealed drawings come first, because your engineer’s beam design and bearing detail are what the municipality reviews.
- The code official has 15 business days to grant or deny a residential application. That drops to 5 business days when a Pennsylvania licensed design professional prepared and sealed the drawings, which is one more reason the engineer pays for himself.
- Inspections happen mid job, with the beam and its bearing points open and visible. Cover that framing before it’s signed off and it gets opened again.
- A permit voids if work doesn’t start within 180 days of issue, or stops for 180 days.
In Wilkes-Barre, permits are pulled by city licensed contractors, or by homeowners for their own primary residence only, and the fee follows the cost of the work: $59.50 under $2,500, $114.50 up to $4,999.99, $169.50 up to $7,499.99, $224.50 up to $9,999.99, with a separate schedule above $10,000, plus a $4.50 state training fee on every permit. Neighboring municipalities set their own schedules, so confirm yours. Our guide to when a remodel needs a permit covers the wider rules.
One more thing worth knowing: Pennsylvania moved onto the 2021 International Codes on January 1, 2026, so anything filed now is reviewed against the current edition rather than the one your neighbor built under in 2023.
How long it takes
The demolition is the short part. The weeks come from everything around it:
- Engineer’s assessment and drawings, two to four weeks depending on his schedule.
- Permit review, one to four weeks, capped by the 15 business day clock, or 5 with sealed drawings.
- Shoring, removal and beam installation, two to four days with an experienced crew.
- Trade work and inspections, a week or more if electrical, plumbing or HVAC moved.
- Ceiling, drywall, flooring transitions and paint, one to three weeks.
Total, six to ten weeks from first call to a finished room. The house stays livable for most of it, though the two to four days of structural work are loud, dusty and best planned around.
Do you actually want it all the way open?
Worth asking before you spend the money, because the design conversation has shifted. Fully open plans dominated for two decades and are now getting pushback, and the complaints are consistent: noise carries everywhere, cooking smells reach the whole floor, and there’s nowhere to take a call or close a door on a mess.
The 2026 answer designers keep landing on is a broken plan layout, which keeps the sightlines and the daylight while putting back some separation. That opens up options between “wall” and “no wall”:
- Widen the doorway into a six or eight foot cased opening, which gets you most of the connection at a fraction of the structural work and sometimes needs only a modest header rather than a full beam.
- Take out part of the wall and leave a section standing at one end, so you keep a wall for cabinets or a television while the room still reads as open.
- Leave a column mid span, which splits a long opening into two shorter ones, drops the beam size dramatically, and reads as intentional once it’s wrapped and trimmed.
- A half wall or peninsula keeps the sightlines, improves the acoustics, and gives you a surface you’ll use every day.
Two practical notes if you do go fully open. Heating and cooling change, because one large space with a much bigger volume rarely balances well on a system laid out for separate rooms, so ask about returns and register placement before demolition. And hard surfaces in a big open room amplify sound, which is exactly the complaint driving the broken plan trend.
How to decide
- If the wall runs parallel to the joists, doesn’t stack with a wall above, and sits nowhere near the main beam, you’re probably looking at a partition. Confirm it, then treat it as a demolition and finish job.
- If it runs perpendicular to the joists, stacks with a wall above, or sits over the main beam, treat it as structural and get an engineer out before you plan anything else.
- If you can’t tell, hire the engineer. A few hundred dollars settles a question that no amount of internet reading will.
- If the number comes back high, ask what a widened opening or a partial removal costs instead. The answer is often a fraction of the price and gets you most of the feeling.
- If plumbing runs through the wall, budget more and expect a longer schedule than the same wall carrying only wires.
Whichever way it goes, insist on a written scope that names the beam, the bearing points, the footing work and every utility relocation before anyone quotes a price. A quote written without that detail isn’t a price, it’s a guess, and guesses get corrected in your favor exactly never.
If you’re weighing an open concept remodel on a Wilkes-Barre or Luzerne County home, we’re happy to walk the space, look underneath, and tell you plainly what the wall is doing before you commit to anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if a wall is load bearing?
Look at the floor joists in your basement or attic. A wall running perpendicular to them, or sitting directly over the main carrying beam, or stacking with a wall on the floor above, is almost certainly bearing load. A wall parallel to the joists is usually a partition. These tests can confirm a wall is structural, but they can’t prove one isn’t, so an engineer makes the final call.
Can I remove a load bearing wall myself?
You shouldn’t. The wall itself is easy to knock down and that’s exactly the problem, because the difficulty lives in the temporary shoring, the beam sizing and the bearing points underneath. Getting any of those wrong shows up as sagging floors, cracked drywall, doors that stop closing, or worse. Prep, cleanup and demolition of a confirmed partition are reasonable homeowner jobs.
How much does it cost to remove a load bearing wall?
The national average is about $5,700, with most projects between $1,400 and $10,000. A short interior wall in a single story home runs $1,200 to $3,000, while a long opening in a two or three story home runs $3,200 to $10,000 and can reach $20,000 with a large engineered beam. New footings, plaster demolition and rerouted plumbing are what push a job to the top of the range.
Do I need a permit to remove an interior wall in Pennsylvania?
Yes for a load bearing wall. Pennsylvania’s Uniform Construction Code lists cutting away a load bearing wall or partition as work that isn’t an ordinary repair, so it requires a permit. Relocating electrical, plumbing, gas or vent piping is on the same list, which means most partition removals need one too. Check with your municipality, since local rules can be stricter than the state minimum.
How long does it take to remove a load bearing wall?
Plan on six to ten weeks start to finish. The structural work itself, shoring, demolition and beam installation, takes two to four days with an experienced crew. The rest is engineering drawings at two to four weeks, permit review at one to four weeks, then trade work, inspections and finishing.
Do I really need a structural engineer, or can my contractor size the beam?
You need the engineer. Pennsylvania municipalities review sealed structural drawings before issuing the permit, and a design prepared by a licensed Pennsylvania professional cuts the review clock from 15 business days to 5. A load bearing wall analysis costs $250 to $1,000, which is small next to the project and smaller than fixing a wrong assumption.
Does opening up a floor plan increase home value?
Usually yes for connecting a closed off kitchen to a living space, which buyers still respond to. Fully open plans have cooled since their peak, and layouts that keep some separation are gaining ground, so removing every wall on a floor no longer reads as an automatic upgrade. Do it because you want to live in it, and treat resale as a bonus.
What if a previous owner removed a load bearing wall without a permit?
Get a structural engineer in before you do anything else, especially if you see sloping floors, cracks over doorways or doors that don’t latch. Unpermitted structural work can be corrected after the fact through your municipality, usually with an engineer’s assessment and a retroactive permit. It also has to be disclosed when you sell, since Pennsylvania’s seller disclosure law specifically covers structural changes.
Can you remove part of a load bearing wall instead of all of it?
Yes, and it’s often the better buy. Widening a doorway into a six or eight foot cased opening, removing half the wall, or leaving a wrapped column mid span all get you most of the openness for meaningfully less money. Shorter spans need smaller beams and lighter bearing points, and that’s where the savings come from.
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