Pulling down walls, RSJ's and kitchen/diners....

whoschuffed

Seen a 3 bed semi house that we like the look of and went for a viewing today. The house is a good size and in a good area, with a decent size lounge and dining room but it has a god awful 5ft 5 wide kitchen next to the dining room which is neither use nor ornament.

Is it costly to get an RSJ fitted so that the wall can come down that separates the dining room and kitchen. Or more to the point, is the actual steel cost of the RSJ a lot?

I'm quite au fais with the process of how RSJ's are fitted and think myself, along with help from a couple of family members could do most of the work ourselves.

Am I right in thinking I'd need a structural engineer to do some calculations for the steel required and to get building regs in to check it during the process?

I'm just trying to think about what the extra costs might be on top of what would be a new kitchen too, but overall a much nicer, bigger kitchen/dining space. Plus having looked on RightMove a house of same shape and size a bit further down the street, earlier in the year, sold for just under £20,000 more than this house is on for at the moment which didn't have the extension but was an open plan kitchen/diner so I think there's definitely some value to be added to property by doing the work.

FYI - house is on for £125k and has been for a few months iirc and is vacant possession so potential to negotiate a bit on price.

Mallotum_X

Couple of thousand to take the wall out. The overall cost will depend on the finish you want.

Davesnave

Yes, you will need a structural engineer. Just don't use ours, who took 6 weeks, messed-up and then charged us £470, but that's the sort of fee you are looking at for a job they'll likely have covered dozens of times.

The steel we used was fabricated locally and cost £432. It was around 7m long and generously specified. i.e. it covered the engineer's @rse by a very wide margin! Not a problem for us, as we put it in using a local farmer's telehandler, but it would have been a struggle without mechanical assistance. You might get away with something lighter.

So, under £1k if there are no complications, though there may be some work in ensuring the steel itself is adequately supported.

You will also need acrow props to support the building when the wall comes down, but you can hire those.

bris

Do you even know if it a load bearing wall, at 5'5" it may very well just be a partition.

dimbo61

We decided to remove the supporting wall between the kitchen and dining room of a 1930,s three bed semi.
It had a fire place and chimney so ground foor to roof.
Had to put five pieces of steel in which cost over £700 after the structural engineer had done his calculations.
Filled three skips with all the bricks. Dirty, messy job but we gained 3/4 feet in the living area, had to buy extra tiles for the hole in the roof.

whoschuffed

To be honest i'm not entirely sure if it is load bearing, I only assumed it was because looking at the floor plans there is a wall in roughly the same place on the upstairs landing, however thinking about what you said it may not be.

In fact, looking at the pictures of the other house that sold on the street for more earlier in the year, the pictures of their kitchen/diner don't appear to show an RSJ unless they have brought the height of the entire ceiling down to cover it.

I'd be inclined to think it was load bearing though (safer to assume it is than not) and will require a 6 ft steel for if the wall comes down.

I've done messy jobs like this before. Helped the old man take the chimney breast out of their 3 bed semi a few years back. God what a messy job. Worth it in the end though, gave them a lot more usable room in their lounge and looked a lot nicer as a result so i'm no stranger to mucking in and grafting.

Hoploz

It might not be load bearing. Our old house had solid walls downstairs but some of the upstairs ones directly above them were only partition walls. You need to know which way the floor joists run.
Also, you can put a steel positioned so you have a smooth ceiling run - we did it when we extended the back of our old house to make a large open plan room. It spanned the void between downstairs ceiling and upstairs floor. So the fact you can't see it on a neighbours house might not mean anything.

Davesnave

Hoploz wrote: »

.
Also, you can put a steel positioned so you have a smooth ceiling run - we did it when we extended the back of our old house to make a large open plan room. It spanned the void between downstairs ceiling and upstairs floor. So the fact you can't see it on a neighbours house might not mean anything.

Correct. The reason it can be seen is often simply that people have been lazy and/or gone for the cheapest option.

tadgh_99

whoschuffed wrote: »

Am I right in thinking I'd need a structural engineer to do some calculations for the steel required and to get building regs in to check it during the process?

Absolutely. I did the same about three years ago. But I would ask around for a structural engineer. I found a chap that was retired and he did the calculations (which were approved by building regulations chap) for about £80 if I remember correctly.

I think the whole job (removing a 10' wall separating the dining & living room) came to less than £1k.

whoschuffed

To be fair we'll probably do most if not all of the labour ourselves, between the father and brother they've done this type of thing quite a few times in their respective houses.

Hopefully only outlay will be the calculations, the steel itself and building regs. Would most likely have a skip anyway to get rid of other junk in the house.

I've not even put an offer in yet on the house anyway lol, purely speculating the possibilities.

whoschuffed

Hoploz wrote: »

It might not be load bearing. Our old house had solid walls downstairs but some of the upstairs ones directly above them were only partition walls. You need to know which way the floor joists run.
Also, you can put a steel positioned so you have a smooth ceiling run - we did it when we extended the back of our old house to make a large open plan room. It spanned the void between downstairs ceiling and upstairs floor. So the fact you can't see it on a neighbours house might not mean anything.

Fair points! If we end up going for it i'll check it out.