This is the job homeowners most often underestimate, and the one where the difference between crews shows up most clearly.
Cutting a wall out is the easy part. The work is everything around it: proving what the wall is actually carrying, sizing a beam that can take it, shoring the house safely while the wall is gone, and — the part that gets skipped — carrying the concentrated load at each end of that new beam all the way down to something that can hold it.
A beautifully installed LVL sitting on a floor that was never designed for a point load has not solved the problem. It has moved it downstairs where you cannot see it. Read the load path for why that matters.
What we actually do
We work from a stamped engineer letter on every load-bearing removal, we pull the permit, we shore both sides before anything gets cut, and we are on site for the framing inspection. If a new footing is required below, that is in the estimate before you sign it, not discovered in week two.
How do the point loads at each end of the beam reach the foundation? If they have not thought about it, they have not priced the job — and their number will change once the wall is open.
