What term describes walls that carry any portion of the building's structural load to the ground?

• A. Load-Bearing-Wall
• B. Nonload-Bearing-Wall
• C. Noncombustible
• D. Protected Steel

Answer: (A)

Walls that carry vertical loads from floors and roofs down to the foundation are called load-bearing walls. This means they are part of the building’s structural system and their primary job is to transfer the weight above to the ground. Nonload-bearing walls, in contrast, don’t support structural loads and are mainly for partitioning spaces; removing them doesn’t typically affect the building’s stability (though it may affect fire separation or layout). The other terms shown describe materials or fire-related properties rather than the wall’s role in load transfer—noncombustible refers to how a material resists burning, and protected steel describes a steel member with fireproofing, not a description of the wall’s load-carrying function.