Knocking a wall down

MartynL

Hi all

I'm knocking a wall down between my kitchen and small dining room. A builder tells me we can safely knock it down because the upstairs joists 'run the other way' meaning they run in the same direction as the wall. He says it is not supporting. Do I still have to contact building control/planning to knock it down or can we just go ahead? Do we need to supply drawings? The wall is full height and about 9' wide made of brick I think. 1969 build house.

jcb208

I would of thought a wall 9 inch thick will be supporting the building in some way

keystone

MartynL wrote: »

Hi all

I'm knocking a wall down between my kitchen and small dining room. A builder tells me we can safely knock it down because the upstairs joists 'run the other way' meaning they run in the same direction as the wall. He says it is not supporting.

Generally speaking he would be correct but by no means in all cases and it would be extremely rash to make a decision just based on that.

Do I still have to contact building control/planning to knock it down or can we just go ahead? Do we need to supply drawings? The wall is full height and about 9' wide made of brick I think. 1969 build house.

If it's load bearing yes you need Building Regs. A nine inch brick wall is probably more likely to be load bearing than not IMO.

I think you need on-site advice by a structural engineer before you do anything else.

Cheers

MartynL

It is a 4" wall and 9' wide.

ixwood

if the boards run the same way as the wall, doesn't that mean that the beams the boards are on are being supported by the wall?

MartynL

On the upstairs floor the boards run at right angles to the downstairs wall which means the joists run the same way as the wall downstairs and probably aren't supported by the wall.

ixwood

Sorry, I misread joists as boards.

thickbuilder

before taking the wall down cut away a strip of the plasterboard cieling to see if anything is sat on the wall
you will need to patch the cieling where the wall was so a bit more wont hurt
check the wall doesnt carry through to upstairs

MartynL

thickbuilder wrote: »

before taking the wall down cut away a strip of the plasterboard cieling to see if anything is sat on the wall
you will need to patch the cieling where the wall was so a bit more wont hurt
check the wall doesnt carry through to upstairs

If there is nothing(i don't think there is) does that mean I can take it down without further permissions from anyone?

west_ham_till_i_die

You don't need anyones permission to take a non loading wall down HLH