Is this possible-to knock though gable wall to extend room?

needmorehelp

Hi Folks,


I would like your advice if this is possible to do from the point of view of safety in the long term.


I live in a one and a half storey semi detached bunglalow, roughly a square shape of about 26 ft length wise and gable wise, with existing rooms upstairs and dormer bathroom (in the middle of length of house upstairs)


I wonder if I ever decide to extend, if its possible to knock through an 11-12 foot opening in the gable wall downstairs, so as to extend a just over 11 foot wide room at back of house. It would be an 11-12 foot opening in gable at back of house to extend the existing back room, and the exterior and interior block walls of that 11 foot wide room would be continued through the opening in gable.


For those that are able to follow me so far I would then be building another gable in extension adding a further room to front and another room upstairs.



I am of the present opinion that it is not possible to do this from a safety point of view, all the walls are block downstairs both interior and exterior and studded upstairs., and the existing gable has to carry all the weight of the roof etc, so making a gap in gable will weaken all the structure, unless there are really really strong beams to be able to withstand any strains both now and the future.


What do you think, I know there would be another way to extend the house without touching gable, but I would like the above way if it was totally safe to do.


Thanks for any advice.

lee111s

Pretty much anything is possible when extending a house but you'll need to consult a structural engineer who will be able to work out what supporting steel work will be required in order to maintain the integrity of the structure.


Cost will of course vary depending on the complexity of what you want to do, the work involved and of course the length and thickness RSJ (rolled steel joist) that you need.

reeac

Perfectly possible. We had a 16 ft. wide opening made in the rear wall of our bungalow (OK, it wasn't a gable wall but it carried half the weight of the tiled roof), with no problem. Two builders did it with some extra help to raise the rather hefty RSJ. Building regs. will require a structural engineer to specify the RSJ

booty40uk

Definitely possible subject to planning, structural requirements and budget.

Furts

If everything is being done on a tight budget consider reducing the dimension of your knock through hole and make this a feature. A Catnic lintel goes to around 3100-3300 clear span (by memory - I have not checked the catalogue!). The advantage with this is it avoids the costs of steels, fireproofing and Structural Engineers fees.