Wall/door removal quote for this bizarre cupboard thing

NibblyPig

Recently moved house and the row of houses I am on all have the same strange layout, of this weird 3 door cupboard thing. Here's a floorplan:



You can see from the pic that there is this really weird cupboard thing with literally FOUR doors. Here's a photo of this:


As you can see it's kind of ridiculous and the fact there's a skirting board in the cupboard suggests to me that it was added afterwards. All three of those are connected together behind as on the floorplan, the first door not shown has a divider wall and is the electric cupboard.

The space is not really usable and I would rather just open the corridor and put some shelves or shelving unit in. 

I got a quote just shy of £1000 to remove the wall and make good, but it does not include the cost of disposal.

Does removing that wall & doors look like a £1000 job, and/or is it something I could just do myself with an electric saw and a bit of patience?

Probably I could keep the doors and sell them / give them away if it's something people might want so the rubbish would just be the rest. Perhaps I could even store it and dispose of it myself over a period of time (going to the tip is not really an option atm as queues are 2-3 hours!).

Any thoughts are welcome. Many thanks.

couriervanman

2-3 hr for the tip......you sure 

NibblyPig

couriervanman said:

2-3 hr for the tip......you sure 

 The queue for the recycling centre. Why is it so long? Just a heads up if anyone has to go down there. : bristol (reddit.com)
Seen a few threads, basically people saying the queue is ridiculous. I could store the waste though.
They have a live queue camera that shows the beginning of the queue, it's like 2-3 cars in at a time max which is mental - it's always busy when there's 10-15 cars in at once so atm it's even worse Avonmouth and St Philip's queue camera - Bristol Waste Company

FreeBear

A couple of thoughts...

You need to check that the "walls" are not providing structural support for the joists upstairs. They probably don't...

Any timber can be recycled - Either used for other projects, or cut up for firewood. That should leave just the plasterboard and doors (the latter, bung on freecycle or similar).

nologo

Just a thought is it a semi/terrace property?  as this may affect sound insulation between houses,

Jeepers_Creepers

Good point by nologo.

Other than that, tho', this is a straight-forward DIY job, but the 'making good' afterwards could be tricky - it all depends on the sequence in which it was built.

Can you check this skirting board - see if it continues along that end wall in one piece, with the 'cupboard' skirting then scribed onto it. Might be tricky to see, but have a look from the inside too. Ie, does the 'wall' skirting stop where it hits the cupboard wall, or does it clearly continue and is the same as the one the arrow is pointing to?

You say all the similar houses have the same style of cupboard? So it isn't an after-thought, but an original feature, I guess.

Yes, you always need to be certain it isn't 'structural', but if it were, it would be truly the weirdest cupboard on the planet. Because no-one can check from here, we do need to express caution about that point. (Having said that, it obviously ain't load-bearing...)

To remove it, you unscrew the doors and either sell them (on Facebook Marketplace - £10 for 4) or give them away. The rest will cost a bit to dispose of as they'll charge for plasterboard - it's a pain. You prise off the door architrave, and then just start to gently break up the plasterboard walls - hammer or crowbar. Try and remove it in larger pieces, but chances are it'll just break up.

You'll be left with a skeleton frame - timbers along the roof, and vertical studs coming down to the floor. Use a saw to cut them in the middle, and this'll make them a lot easier to remove - brute force :-)

The one you need to take care with is the ceiling timber, as you'll want to do as little damage there as possible. Where the nails/screws are will also be where the ceiling joists run. Place a flat bit of timber on the ceiling over where a joist is located, and use a crowbar to lever down the ceiling timber. Best start at one end. If you can lever it down even a half-inch, then try hammering the timber back up - avoiding the nail. Hopefully the nail head will remain exposed, so you can now claw-hammer it out.

Bottom line, anything you do will save you a packet, so if you start and can't finish then so what?!

Once the ceiling timber is removed, if you are lucky you'll find these cupboards were added after the main hallway, so you'll only have nail holes to fill - peasy. Worst case it you'll need a plasterer in to make it good - but that's a half-day.

The other tricky 'make good' part will be where the electric cupboard is - are you keeping that one door?

Go for it! We'll take you through each step.

£1k? Wow - that's easy money... Mind you, it would likely involve a couple of different trades. But still...

NibblyPig

Thanks for your reply, very thorough!

The skirting actually comes in a bit as the frame isn't flush to the wall. The cupboard is all plasterboard, even the side wall near the porch door (there is a solid wall behind that).


Here is a photo inside the cupboard looking out of the last door.


Do you need to bash the walls to pieces instead of just sawing square chunks out?

The tricky making good part is the electric cupboard I expect, there is a dividing wall there which isn't pictured on the floorplan, I suppose I would want to remove it up to that wall.

The whole wall seems hollow and it is empty as I drilled a hole and poked a screwdriver in and met no resistance at all. If there's any doubts I could have a look inside the wall. but it all sounds hollow to me...

binao

Go for it. £1K = Lots of meals out, soon, or a few crates.

As previous posts, disposal should be no problem. Remember 1k doesn't include disposal.
Surprising what you can hide in the bottom of the house hold rubbish bin.


Reminisce - I put a dismantled kitchen larder cab out front for free, it disappeared tres quick, (no thank you very much),  next day ding dong, fellow demanded a missing screw.

FreeBear

binao said: Surprising what you can hide in the bottom of the house hold rubbish bin - plaster board!!!

You really shouldn't be putting building waste (especially PB) in with your household bin....

binao

FreeBear said:

binao said: Surprising what you can hide in the bottom of the house hold rubbish bin - plaster board!!!

You really shouldn't be putting building waste (especially PB) in with your household bin....

@FreeBear , you are so right. I have deleted the PB reference.

Not sure about what goes in the bin compared to the environmental  impact of the OPs 2 - 3 hour wait / queue at the local tip.

Good luck OP.

FreeBear

binao said:  I have deleted the PB reference.

I only said "shouldn't", not "must not"... The problem with gypsum plaster (including PB), is when it gets mixed with organic matter in a landfill, it produces hydrogen sulphide which is one of those nasty greenhouse gasses.

Last time I did any serious building work, sweepings off the floor ended up in the bin - It might have included a small amount of PB....