cost for knocking through a wall?

kitchensink_2

Hi

I am thinking of buying a house that needs a bit of work and I was hoping someone might be able to give me a ball park figure for how much it would cost to knock through a wall and have double doors fitted. I have been told the wall already has a lintel in it, but a costing with and without a lintel would be great. I think it is a supporting wall.

thanks.

Kiran

Hmm, where to start with this one???

Is the wall an external wall, and is there already a window there?

If there's already a window there then provding the lintel has enough bearing on each side its quite an easy job and its probably a days labour on top of the cost of the door.

If there's nothing in the wall already I'd think twice before believing there is a lintel there in which case you'd probably be looking at 2-3 days labour plus lintel and door.

As for prices, it depends on your location, the type of double doors you want and in the case of a lintel the load being transfered from above.

Hope this starts to point you in the right direction.

kitchensink_2

Thanks kiran, sorry i wasn't clear in my first post.

I am in the process of 'hopefully' buying a house and would like to put double doors through the internal wall between the lounge and dining room. The wall has no radiators etc to move and I'm hoping it would be a straight forward job.

The reason for my uncertainty about the lintel is that the vendor thinks there is already a lintel in the wall. He bought the house off plan and had intended to get the builders do the same job and thinks the bulider put a lintel in so they could then knock it through. He said he decided to not continue with this plan after paying for other extra's on the house as he couldnt afford it, so in his mind the wall could just be knocked through.

Obviously there is no way for me to tell whether this is correct, hence wanting a price for both with lintel and without. Oh and we are after some bog standard double doors.

phew! hope that makes more sense to someone.

Kiran

Right, I've got you now. It may just be me, but I would not be too sure about the lintel being in place. It wouldn't make sense to buy the house off plan and put the doors in later. The cost of the extra brick/blockwork wouldn't seem justifiable compared to getting the builder to put it in at the time. Looking on Wickes £3-400 for the doors, I'm sure you could find them cheaper or construct using 2 single doors (value engineering here!).

Labour costs would depend on your location, but the time mentioned previously is probably about right, If a lintel is required as the wall is internal then you could knock the job down to 2 days (1 day propping, fitting lintel and demolition, 1 day fitting door lining, doors, making good and cleaning up.

The lintel type will depend on the loads being transfred from above, you may get away with a box lintel although it could be a steel beam. Definitely budget for the lintel though, as I said before, something doesn't seem right there. If you do buy the house though, you will be able to work out whether you need it before any work starts.

Hope this was a bit more help

kitchensink_2

i'm also dubious about the lintel being already in there but the vendor said he initially agreed with the builder to have double doors, so they fitted a lintel during the build. Then the builder wanted to build the wall as previously planned and then knock it back though and charge for it to be done! Confusing and I think it's also best to budget for there not being one there.

Thanks for the information, knowing it will only take a couple of days helps and I will do a search to see about door prices.

Always puts a smile on my face when someone will go out of their way to reply to a strangers post with advice - restores my faith

matt_boro

im having the wall knocked through between dining room and living room, plus steel beam putting in - £200 - no doors being put in though

the builder is already here doing other work though, so might be a cheap price

Matt

Kiran

kitchensink wrote: »

i'm also dubious about the lintel being already in there but the vendor said he initially agreed with the builder to have double doors, so they fitted a lintel during the build. Then the builder wanted to build the wall as previously planned and then knock it back though and charge for it to be done! Confusing and I think it's also best to budget for there not being one there.

Thanks for the information, knowing it will only take a couple of days helps and I will do a search to see about door prices.

Always puts a smile on my face when someone will go out of their way to reply to a strangers post with advice - restores my faith

You're welcome. Got my fingers crossed that there's a lintel in there for you. lol.

kitchensink_2

Thanks matt - really useful to know and I've got my fingers crossed too Kiran!!!!:T

markowen

£200 sounds far too cheap- that's only the cost of one day labour. It will take at least 2 and the cost of the lintel.

We paid £1400 to have the wall between living and dining room taken out. It's the main supporting wall and had a steel I beam put in, plus some plastering work done and the picture rail, skirting and gap in the floor fixed. Took 2.5 days for 2 men. We know the guy isn't the cheapest or most expensive, but he does good work. Would use this as a budgeting figure in case there isn't a lintel.