Help - Need Advice - New Transom Interior Doors - Load Bearing?

[bryancompton]

We have two interrior door ways immediatly inside our front door. These doorways don't have doors and above the doorways is sheetrock. Above these doorways I want to put in a glass transom and then install nice glass doors so the entranceway will look much. I have looked in several DIY books but I can't find one that deals with installing glass transoms. What's the best way to do this? Also, how can I tell if a doorway is loadbearing? I suspect above the door and behind the sheetrock are short studs above the header. Would it be best to put glass in and not take out the studs above the header and simply put trim around the studs?

Thanks in advance for helping me on this!

Bryan

[kevin]

You really need to figure out what load it is supporting. You might have short studs above a header. Or you might have a full-height header (like two 2x10s). And this might be taking some load from above, or not. Even your idea of leaving the studs (if there are studs), removing drywall, and adding glass, is not really safe unless you know what the load is. Drywall does actually have more than a decorate purpose (e.g., for shear forces), but the glass will be entirely decorative.

But in all likelyhood, if it is just a simple shallow header, with short studs above it, and assuming there is no loading from above, then you could just remove the whole thing and put in glass with no trouble.

-Kev> We have two interrior door ways immediatly inside our front door.

[bryancompton]

If I find a solid wall of wood then this out of the question. However, if I find short studs is there some way to figure out if this is a load bearing wall? Does it have something to do with how the upper doorway was framed in style or wood used?

kev> You really need to figure out what load it is supporting. You might