A load-bearing wall or bearing wall, is one in which a wall of a structure bears the weight and force resting upon it, conducting the vertical load from the upper structure to the foundation. Structure is a fundamental and sometimes Intangible notion covering the Recognition, Observation, nature, and Stability of A bearing wall is opposed to a curtain wall, which uses the strength of a sub-wall to bear the weight of the curtain such as the brick facade on a skyscraper, and superstructure, usually a steel frame, to carry the weight of the floors and walls inside the curtain walls protection. Curtain wall is a term used to describe a building Façade which does not carry any dead load from the building other than its own dead load A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline The materials most often used to construct load-bearing walls in large buildings are concrete, block, or brick. Concrete is a construction material composed of Cement (commonly Portland cement) as well as other cementitious materials such as Fly ash and Slag A brick is a block of Ceramic material used in Masonry construction laid using mortar.

In housing, bearing walls in the most common light construction method "platform framing", each sit on wall sill plates which are mated to the lowest base plates, the two together making up a double width 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 laid horizontally atop one another, where the sills are bolted to the masonary or concrete foundation, and the base plate or floor plate is the bottom attachment point of wall studs which rest upon it when the wall is laid up in place. Framing, in construction known as light frame construction, is a building technique based around structural members usually called studs, which provide a stable A Wall plate, a structural element in the "Light frame construction" method known as Platform framing, is a horizontally laid structural element A Wall plate, a structural element in the "Light frame construction" method known as Platform framing, is a horizontally laid structural element Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar, and the term "masonry" can also refer to the units themselves A wall stud is a vertical member in the Light frame construction techniques called Balloon framing and platform framing of a Building 's Wall Using a top and bottom plate, walls can be constructed laying down allowing end nailing then tipped up into place. The wall studs are end nailed between two plates, the top plate or ceiling plate being the name of the one just below the platform of the next floor (at the ceiling). Use of a top and bottom plate, enables walls to be constructed in a section along flat ground or on pavement, then tipped up into place atop the wall sill, improving accuracy and shortening the construction while providing a stronger wall.

Load-bearing walls are one of the earliest forms of construction. In the fields of Architecture and Civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the Building or assembling of Infrastructure With the advent of Gothic architecture, and its vast expanses of windows and high vaulted ceilings, flying buttresses were employed to keep the weight of the building properly distributed. See also Gothic art Gothic architecture is a style of Architecture which flourished during the high and late medieval period. A flying buttress, or arc-boutant, is a specific type of Buttress usually found on a religious building such as a Cathedral. Notre Dame Cathedral has a load-bearing wall structure with flying buttresses. NotreDameFlyingButtressjpg|right|thumb|250px|Notre Dame de Paris Flying Buttress]] Notre Dame de Paris is a Gothic Cathedral on the eastern half of the

The birth of the skyscraper era, the concurrent rise of steel as a more suitable framing system, and the limitations of load-bearing construction in large buildings led to a decline in the use of load-bearing walls in large-scale, commercial structures. A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable Building. There is no official definition or a precise cutoff height above which a building may clearly be classified as a skyscraper Steel is an Alloy consisting mostly of Iron, with a Carbon content between 0

Depending on the type of building and the number of stories, load-bearing walls are gauged to the appropriate thickness to carry the weight above it. Without doing so, it is possible that an outer wall could become unstable if the load exceeds the strength of the material used, potentially leading to the collapse of the structure.

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