Any builders in? How much to knock a load bearing wall down and make good

We’re thinking about getting a wall knocked down to make two rooms into one. The wall is a load bearing wall so will need some steel support I imagine (but I’m no expert).

What’s the likely rough cost to knock the wall down and tidy up/make good ?

If it makes any different the wall is approx 3.5m long, and the making good will involve repositioning some light switches as well as replastering etc etc.

My old man did it quite some years ago, so I cant advise on cost, buy yes youll need an RSJ, put in which you can then hide behind wood or plasterboard on a frame, something like this..

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-y1LTZo2PPQ/maxresdefault.jpg

Depends where you are but I’d guess at £1.5k to £3k.

It’s a pretty simple job. RSJ will be £200ish, two men and 2-3 days to prop up, cut through, build piers and set the RSJ. Then BC inspect and they put two layers of Plaster board over and make good….

Start with a structural engineer and building control.

We did 2 walls, at right angles then put back up another partition wall. I did a lot myself but we still paid out £3200 for the materials and the work I couldn’t do, like proper building and plastering.

It will mainly depend on what exists to tie the RSJ to – if there is existing brickwork and the calcs say it is enough then it is pretty simple. If you need any underpinning/piers building etc it will become more expensive (up to £5k/£6k easily I’d say).

and the making good will involve repositioning some light switches

This can add significantly to cost.

If you want to be legit, it needs building control sign off, which requires structural engineers calcs. Every builder (4 or 5) who quoted for ours said “nah, don’t worry about that” but having nearly lost a house sale over paperwork for replacement windows I wanted to be by the book, even though it added costs. £3000 ish iirc, sparky bits extra.

Thanks all, I’m hoping it wont need underpinning etc, but is there anything I can look at to give me a likelihood of whether it will.

Just knock the wall down, it’ll be fine.

Alternatively, you could try posting a description of the job on here. Not used it myself, but a friend of mine says he uses it all the time.

If you want to be legit, it needs building control sign off, which requires structural engineers calcs.

The calcs cost about £200, as its such a common thing most engineers will know the numbers by just looking at the house as will BC who must sign off 100s of them…

You can save a lot of money doing the work yourself.

We paid £100 pounds for a builder to come in and install the beam, then knocked down the wall and disposed ourselves (we were doing other DIY work so had a skip), I arranged the building control sign off (£150ish 5 years ago) and bought the beam (£100) and we did the fire protection and made good.

We didn’t require any calcs, building control came round before we started work and confirmed that they wouldn’t require calcs if we installed a beam of a X size with Y size bearers.

We had quotes for £1500 for the same work all in.

FWIW, we didn’t get any calcs done on some work we had done last year – building control came out and approved the planned work on a visual inspection. They did the final sign-off based on pictures I took after the builder forgot to call them back out to do the second ‘sign-off’ visit and proceeded to board/plaster it all up.

The project bore (at an old house) we went through the longer route of official cals etc as it included the removal of an internal load-bearing wall as well as a large chunk of the external wall – that job required much more work…

Depends if you are happy with the downstand. If its a problem it’ll add cost

Depends if you are happy with the downstand

by downstand , do you mean the boxed in steel beam protruding into the room space?

If so – I’m most likely ok to accept that on the basis that having the ceiling flush would probably add quite a lot of cost.

They did the final sign-off based on pictures I took

Most of my workshop build was signed off via my Flickr account, I just emailed them a link to the relevant photos and they emailed back saying AOK…..

Although I still haven’t built the soakaway yet, so not fully completed…..

We’ve just had the exact same job done, including moving a power point and light switch. Total for everything including signing off by building inspector was £2000.

by downstand , do you mean the boxed in steel beam protruding into the room space?

If so – I’m most likely ok to accept that on the basis that having the ceiling flush would probably add quite a lot of cost.

Correct – thats the downstand and the issue!

The rooms we were knocking through had different ceiling heights so it made “should we have a flush beam” decision easy!

We paid 2k for ours, including building control costs and skip etc. Steel hidden up into hoists so flush ceiling

I dont see the need for this flush look through, i could possibly be done but so much more expensive to shore up the weight above, 2100mm i’m sure is all you need from floor to beam
6 maybe 8 acro props, holes above beam to take needles, pad stones built in, a good drill to cut the vertical lines like what you did at primary school with pin and paper
No downstand ? Above every internal door there is always usually about 300mm

Just to play devil’s advocate here: The bit of a room you use is the perimeter; that’s where you sit, put furniture against etc, the space in the middle is really just that. Two smaller rooms have more walls to put stuff against. The danger is that instead of two small rooms, you get one room that feels just a bit bigger; mentally you adapt to the space you’re in. If you go into your attic you will see the footprint of your house, as downstairs would be with all the walls removed; is it really as big as you expected??? When you take your tent down, are you not surprised how small the patch of flattened grass is?
Just saying, because I’m always disappointed with studio flats and the sense of space you have in them.

Not needed, per se, but if it’s possible why not? It looks neater, and makes the room look more like it was built that way rather than converted.

If we couldn’t have managed it for whatever reason, fine. Since we could and it didn’t add to the cost for us, it seemed better.

So far the only quote we’ve had from the umpteen builders who have been was £3800 cash or £4200 plus vat through the books. **** sick of the ****, its like nobody wants some easy money round here. One quote from about 7 builders.

Thanks all. This would be to knock the wall down between the breakfast room and kitchen to make a single kitchen/breakfast room.

squirrelking – whereabouts in the country are you?

If you don’t know any builders who will do the job well at a decent price the best thing is to go along to your local builders merchant, B&Q Tradepoint, etc and ask somebody at the counter if they know one of their regular customers they might recommend.

Pity you are so far at the West coast im based 17 miles from St Andrews but heading for a weekend to my favourite island Arran some weekend soon for a hurl on the bike. Steel beams are relatively straightforward unless you want flush walls ie no nibs or no beam below the ceiling. Tape up the door to stop the stoor travelling to other rooms

a good drill to cut the vertical lines like what you did at primary school with pin and paper

WTF!

Just hire one of these…

Id never use a stihl saw inside a house just imagine how many weeks to get rid of the fumes, if you use a water bottle to stop the dust, the mess would be everywhere and the guard often prevents you from hitting the mark. The drill a bit slower but accurate in the right hands

Personally I’d just open the windows, it would only be used for a few minutes to cut the vertical lines.

+1 redmex re stitch drilling

As above no stihl saw in a house unless empty. Dust free options available but your average builder won’t have them available. Far better to stitch drill.

Don’t use a stihl saw you will be cleaning the dust up for weeks! I worked on my mates house all last year (hes a builder) his mrs was less than impressed with using a stihl saw in the house!I think she burt out a hover in the aftermath!

Decent SDS drill will take the wall down once the beams above have been propped before slipping in you RSJ.
Depending on the height of the doorways ceilings etc

Don’t underestimate how dusty/rubbly/filthy it can get!!

Julians – I’m in Largs, SW Scotland. As luck would have it I got a quote through the post today, just shy of £1500 so more in line with expectations. I expect I’ll be taking this one if it means getting the job done in good time.