How To Tell if board on side of wall is load bearing or just part of exterior wall

[David Banner]

update: I have since found out that there is an I-joist on the edge framing. What was confusing was, they added a few extra pieces of OSB board in front of this to make up for the needed width to meet the outer edge and also have the final facia board have something to nail into. So I was confused on why so many layers of boards on the edge of house. But now I have hired a licensed contractor to replace the I-joist and other trim to fix the water damaged areas. I also find that if you run your own ads looking for a licensed carpenter and offer certain fee for one day of work, you will get those to do it at YOUR price, rather than the ripoff pricing they come up with out of their heads. Before I ran my own add I had one guy say $4800, then I got another estimate at $2900. Then I ran my own advertisement, I offered $1800 plus material costs and I had more than enough responses to choose from. So I saved anywhere from $800 to $3000 depending on who you compare estimates too. What a racket. Control costs by running your own GIG ads on Craigslist or wherever you want. Even at $1800 for 8 hours work, that's $225.00 an hour! Do brain surgeons even make that much per hour? Anyhoos....

[mrcaptainbob]

Yes, from the outside, it is difficult to tell. Is there a chance you could remove that ceiling covering? Looks like it's one piece. Finding which way the floor joists run will help you.
One thing you could do is to use something like a 2x6 flat face against the ceiling and put four jack posts beneath that and raise it up juuust enough to take the pressure off. Not more than a half inch IF that much.
PROVIDED~~~ the floor joists run perpendicular to that rotted board~~~!
You may be dealing with more rain damage than that board. Is the wall that the rotted board terminates at compromised? any evidence of water damage inside the house in that area?
The floor joists under that section could be cantilevered from the main house. MAYBE....
Pulling that ceiling would answer the direction of the joists...

[David Banner]

I have a water leak from a roof gutter that has leaked over the years and degraded an exterior board to house which happens to be directly above the back porch area. I can't tell if this is a load bearing piece or just a board used to finish off the bottom area of exterior wall. I'd like to remove it and replace myself, but not sure if bringing in very tall jack stands to hold structure up while working on it is needed due to it being load bearing? I have included a link to my google drive video showing the exact home and issue...