I have very little experience with construction and am looking for help to determine options for changing a load bearing wall. We have a large unfinished basement room (upper is 1 level rancher). The wall in question is 19'6\" (unfinished on one side, finished on the other) and we believe this to be load bearing as it is bolted to the concrete and we can see joist ends on the unfinished side. Initially I wanted to remove about 8' of this wall (mid-span)to create an opening into the finished area (back side of this wall). After consulting with a few people we believe that an opening on this wall will require an engineer's report as well as a great deal of reinforcement of side beams and headers (forgive my terminology - I said I was not construction savvy). Our budget is very tight and we were thinking that perhaps we alter the plan to have a simple 4' opening. If my math is correct a 4' opening would only effect 2 joists bearing weight on this wall. Would this have much if any bearing on this wall if we were to remove only this 4' section? Would it only require some additional 2\"x6\" and header beams? Thank you to anyone who has some knowledge or comments on this issue.
------------------------------------- /^-----^\\ V o o V | Y | \\ Q / / - \\ | \\ | \\ ) || (___\\====