Found a window and door hidden behind our wall!

matticus7

Hi,

We bought a house last October and one of the first things I wanted to do was fix up the "outhouse" as it had an old wooden door that was broken and letting damp and cold into what could be a great space. We got a new door fitted around December in the hopes of turning it into a more usable space.

It never used to be an outhouse and was originally the rear entrance to the property. You would come through the main "outhouse" door (the one we replaced) and then through a 2nd door (the one I uncovered) to enter the house. Over time previous owners of this property changed it so that you now enter through French doors on the joining external wall and this room was closed off and bricked up to become a storage space / outhouse.

Yesterday I was tidying the space and noticed the plaster was bulging badly in 2 places. I picked away at it and soon realised there was something behind it that had been poorly boarded up and plastered over. The first reveal was the small window and then when I continued I found the original door too! Whoever did this work was a botch job specialist as they covered the door with another solid wooden door and then put plasterboard and plaster over both doors to make a flat wall. Another issue is that the wall on the other side of the door (kitchen wall) is badly done as you can maybe see through the glass.



As bad / odd as this may seem its actually something that we wanted to do eventually anyway as it connects to our kitchen and the added space could be used for a dining area or utility room. The issue I have is that I want to remove the whole space to open it up to the kitchen instead of a door. My questions are:

Who would I need to get involved to do that type of work? I understand we would need a new support beam but I'm not sure which trades I need to get involved to do the work.

If I decided to just keep the door could I just knock the wall through that they made behind it? (kitchen side) since the door should have a support system in place as part of the original property construction.

FreeBear

matticus7 said: If I decided to just keep the door could I just knock the wall through that they made behind it? (kitchen side) since the door should have a support system in place as part of the original property construction.

Taking out the "new" brickwork should be a fairly straightforward job. A couple of smacks with a sledgehammer should shift it.

Judging by the floor and walls, I'd hazard a guess that this is an early Victorian property ?

If you remove the door/window frame, you will probably find that it is supporting the brickwork above, so no lintel. A general builder would be able to slot a beam in after you have had a structural engineer advise on the size & type of support. Shouldn't be too expensive. But do bear in mind that you should get the work signed off by Building Control if you want to reduce hassle when you come to sell.

You might want to think about hacking off any gypsum plaster & cement screed on the walls (they look as if they could be solid brick). Replaster with a pure lime plaster, and that will help to mitigate any damp that there might be in that room.

Martin_the_Unjust

What freebear said although you might want to get an electrician to have a look at the wiring as well, looks a bit diy bodge job from what I can see in the picture.

matticus7

FreeBear said:

If you remove the door/window frame, you will probably find that it is supporting the brickwork above, so no lintel. A general builder would be able to slot a beam in after you have had a structural engineer advise on the size & type of support. Shouldn't be too expensive. But do bear in mind that you should get the work signed off by Building Control if you want to reduce hassle when you come to sell.

Yeah I want to remove the whole new wall behind and also do the same with the old wall shown in the picture. A structural engineer to find the right support is great advice as I want everything done right in case we decide to sell it so I'll look into building control and engineer options. 

@Martin The cable suspiciously looks like it's connected to another socket on the inside of the kitchen on the other side of that wall. The fact it's been ran like that to the socket inside the outhouse made me wince when I swept up and saw it running along the ground like that.

Henry2000

Hi,

I've got a similar question.

I'm planning to make a new opening within the existing load-bearing wall. The new opening will be concealed by the Murphy door (openable bookcase) and connect to the section of the house extension where I plan to have my home office.

Can anyone recommend a good structural engineer to ensure my idea is feasible and safe?
Thanks.

Section62

Henry2000 said:

Hi,

I've got a similar question.

I'm planning to make a new opening within the existing load-bearing wall. The new opening will be concealed by the Murphy door (openable bookcase) and connect to the section of the house extension where I plan to have my home office.

Can anyone recommend a good structural engineer to ensure my idea is feasible and safe?
Thanks.

https://www.istructe.org/find-an-engineer/

Most will want to see a plan of what you are proposing, some may offer verbal advice if they come round to your property for a chat.

Simonon77

I love that they didnt even bother removing the door handle ! 

A friend bought a house and was refurbishing the bathroom. He noticed that the back wall was hollow plasterboard rather than brick, so made a hole to investigate more. There was a space about 2 feet deep behind it that had seemingly been boarded over for no reason other than to make the bathroom a bit smaller

Section62

Simonon77 said:

I love that they didnt even bother removing the door handle ! 

A friend bought a house and was refurbishing the bathroom. He noticed that the back wall was hollow plasterboard rather than brick, so made a hole to investigate more. There was a space about 2 feet deep behind it that had seemingly been boarded over for no reason other than to make the bathroom a bit smaller

Sometimes done to either 1) Make space for a concealed toilet cistern and/or 2) to match one of the room dimension(s) to the length of a bath.

If things subsequently change - different toilet/bath - then people don't necessarily go to the hassle of removing the false wall, especially if the bathroom is already large enough as it is.

Also in the days before central heating became common, people often kept the size of the bathroom to a minimum to reduce the volume that needed to be heated (by other means) because the larger the room, the more it cost to heat.

Henry2000

Section62 said:

Henry2000 said:

Hi,

I've got a similar question.

I'm planning to make a new opening within the existing load-bearing wall. The new opening will be concealed by the Murphy door (openable bookcase) and connect to the section of the house extension where I plan to have my home office.

Can anyone recommend a good structural engineer to ensure my idea is feasible and safe?
Thanks.

Most will want to see a plan of what you are proposing, some may offer verbal advice if they come round to your property for a chat.

Very helpful.
Thanks!