Taking down internal wall query

carolannjo

We have a stud partition wall between dining room and kitchen which we want to take out to form kitchen diner. We don't want to just assume that its not load bearing but have no idea who could check this for us. Don't want to take wall down and whole house falls in!!
Anyone advise on who to get to check this out am in Scotland near Glasgow.

mcjordi

is it just wood and plasterboard??

then its very unlikely to be a load bearing wall..
you could phone a local builder and obtain a "qoute" to do the work and ask if its a load bearing wall

carolannjo

Yeah, just wood and plasterboard! We do have our doubts that its load bearing but want to be sure. Thanks for the tip.

wallbash

Lift a couple of floor boards above the wall .

But as stated unlikly to cause you any problems

ormus

a stud wall is highly unlikely to be load bearing. esp in a UK normal brick type house.

aliasojo

Sorry guys have to disagree, my house is all stud wall construction....timber frame/plasterboard, some of them are load bearing.

Neighbour removed partition wall between living room and dining room area and was told by council surveyor she was very lucky the house didn't collapse. As it was she had cracking around wall/ceiling areas and round doorways etc.

General rule of thumb is if the wall runs the same way as the joists that support the floor above it, then it's not load bearing. If the joists above run across the wall, then it is. But that said, I'm told (by an architect) that there are exceptions to that. Best get proper advice.

wallbash

In our defence

Quote ormus.. in a UK normal brick type house.

wallbash Lift a couple of floor boards above the wall

Without all info and not being there can only give general advice

aliasojo

wallbash wrote: »

In our defence

Quote ormus.. in a UK normal brick type house.

wallbash Lift a couple of floor boards above the wall

Without all info and not being there can only give general advice

Lol wallbash...you dont need a defence. I was just adding in to the convo to offer another view about the stud wall thing.

andrew-b

If there's roofspace directly above then you'll also have to check whether the wall is supporting the roof and not just the ceiling joists - in our bungalow some of the internal walls provide support for struts coming down from purlins in the roof.

As others said it's unlikely to be load-bearing for a standard non-timber-framed building but never say never and always check/seek advice first!

Timber-framed buildings are becoming increasingly common though! My folk have a timber-framed extension on top of a previous block & brick extension complete with full pitched roof as it avoided the need to underpin existing foundations due to being lighter (i dug the hole to keep the building inspector happy!) plus made the build quicker and so less expensive. One of the more interesting builds ..though not without event as someone actually died digging the drains out (heart attack).

carolannjo

Hiya happy to give more information if you tell me what you want to know. the house was built in 1994 and is a timberframe and brick construction. The wall concerned is between the kitchen and living/dining room and is a stud partition. Above are bedrooms there are no floorboards as such just big lumps of wood type stuff which (we have found previously) go under walls etc etc Might have to saw a chunk out to get to space between ceiling but if thats what we have to do then thats what we do.
So apart from getting a builder in to give me a quote and asking him, who are these experts that can tell?????

ormus

if the timber frame builder is still in existence, (ie Barrat Homes etc) call them and ask.