Cavity wall to fill a doorway

Crazystar

Hello All,

We are planning to close the doorway in our kitchen(to make more space for storage) which currently provides access to the garden( we got access via the living room already). Its a 90cm doorway and we just had a quote of 1000 £ (with materials, 1.5 days work ) from a builder to fill the doorway with a 9 inch cavity wall. I feel 1000£ is slightly expensive, Any thoughts please? How much does it generally cost to fill a doorway with a solid cavity wall?

Thanks in Advance
sam

teddysmum

I can't advise on the work, but are you happy to lose a possible fire exit ?

makeitstop

Crazystar wrote: »

Hello All,

We are planning to close the doorway in our kitchen(to make more space for storage) which currently provides access to the garden( we got access via the living room already). Its a 90cm doorway and we just had a quote of 1000 £ (with materials, 1.5 days work ) from a builder to fill the doorway with a 9 inch cavity wall. I feel 1000£ is slightly expensive, Any thoughts please? How much does it generally cost to fill a doorway with a solid cavity wall?

Thanks in Advance
sam

What's the external finish and is he putting that right also.???

If he's just bricking / blocking up where the old door was, roughing and plastering the internal surface, then yep, it's pricey. If he has to match external surface to existing render or whatever, then less so, but still fairly pricey.

Working out cost of brickwork / blockwork per meterage is not tricky and there are places online where you can check current rates, both for labour and materials. A bag of plaster isn't any more than about a fiver, and a splash of plasticiser / waterproofer isn't going to cost the earth if he's a pro and using the gear regularly.

Materials are peanuts to be fair, and labour should be no more than £150 to £175 a day for work like this. Add on a bit of extra and it still comes in at less than £1K.

Sounds pricey to me.

On the other hand, if the exterior is brick, then there's a little more to it if he intends to match that perfectly.

Crazystar

Thanks a lot for your kind replies.

Teddysmum, We have a big sliding door in the living room and hence should be ok...and the fire regs also needs only 2 doors, front and back and hence it shld be fine...

Makeitstop, yes its just bricking / blocking up where the old door was, roughing and plastering the internal surface and matching the outside wall with similar bricks....

I agree with you the quote is pricey and browsing the net many guys have got a similar job done for 500-600 quids. Not sure why this guy is charging so much????? I will be taking more quotes now....

ceredigion

Crazystar wrote: »

I agree with you the quote is pricey and browsing the net many guys have got a similar job done for 500-600 quids. Not sure why this guy is charging so much????? I will be taking more quotes now....

If I do the maths (unseen mind) your £500-£600 is not far wrong. however your problem is finding a builder that wants all the hassle in getting all the gear there and away again in order to earn 1.5 days wages. Hence £1000 because then it is worth leaving the other job.

Johnhowell

We had a external kitchen doorway filled in recently. The builder spent time to cut out the partial bricks on the edge of the doorway and matched the joint pattern of the wall.


We had sourced the bricks to match - even had a brick manufacturer regional rep. to visit and advise. The doorway had a feature brick detail across the top which was also removed. Beware - lots of dust will blow about, covering everything!


Then the builder checked the mortar! He sourced a sand from a local ballast supplier - taking a lump of mortar and discussed the likely sand whilst at the stockpiles. Then he did test samples of different mix ratios to see which dried to the same as original mortar.


Good luck.