Are you an engineer or architect?
Just a little side note. My Dad was an architect for 40 years and we had lots of conversations on issues. No architects and engineers are not the same when it comes to bridges, but for houses, architects meed to know virtually all that engineers know because engineers do not review home designs before they are built.
Architects are supposed to understand construction materials, load bearing factors, live-dead weight issues, humidity and lighting, etc., similarly to engineers with regards to building construction not just conceptually but in real live practice. Engineers are ALSO used in larger structures where more complex issues are common.
In terms of residential housing, engineers are rarely used because houses rarely have tremendously difficult issues. The OP issue at hand is not a complex or difficult one for either an engineer or an architect to answer correctly.
What is important to note however is that neither would likely answer the OP without seeing the exact structure. Non engineers / non architects / non construction people often miss important details in describing or imagining a condition of a structure.