Load bearing walls in two story houses

[Spelunx]

Just wondering how you tell if an internal wall in a two-story house is load bearing?

The internal wall is on the bottom story and separates the kitchen from the lounge/dining, it is single brick nib wall, roughly hip height, with four 3 by 3 timber posts running from the nib wall to the ceiling. It looks a lot like the attached image I found on a real estate website, except it is a bit longer and there isn’t a door frame.

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How do you tell if the wall is load-bearing?<O
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Cheers

[Pulse]

In timber two storey construction the joists are usually designed to span 4 to 5 metres at a maximum. If the lounge is close to that size then it is safe to say it is loadbearing. Should be east enough to replace with a steel beam though.

Cheers Pulse

[Metung]

Is there a possibility the joists run parallel with the wall in question? Maybe you could use a stud finder to determine their orientation and then use Pulse's advice to determine which are the load bearing walls.