Probably in the case of this picture there will be an internal skin of brick or block under where they’ve built the timber gable panel so it would be fine to have the load anywhere along the footplate of the timber panel but I’m wondering how it would work when the entire inner wall is timber frame, that is, under the gable panel in the picture would be another timber panel for the first floor and under that, one for the ground. I would imagine it would matter a great deal as the footplate of the gable panel would not be supported along its entire length. In other words, the bottom of the doubled up studs in the pic would only be bearing on another timber panel below, not a block wall. What would be the best way to distribute the load across the timber panel underneath?
