Ballpark cost for removing a wall and building a new one

greensalad

I'm aware this sort of question is really annoying as it's usually based on too many unknowns but I really hope someone might be able to give me just the roughest figure of how much a job like this will cost. I really don't know if it's feasible to do it for hundreds, if it's gonna be several thousands (my bet) or if it's going to be closer to £10k? Total noob.

I'm in the process of buying a house and am hoping to get a wall removed and a new one built as part of early (pre-move-in would be amazing as I have some overlap but seems unlikely) renovations. So I'm just trying to get an idea of how much money I need to be aiming for for this sort of job.

Currently the upstairs of the house has a very wide hallway. Borderline it is enough to make a whole new room. What I would like to do is move the wall to the bedroom to incorporate the hallway to make a large master bedroom, as this room already has an en suite.

I have asked my surveyor, who is attending next week, to look at the walls and tell me if they are load bearing and he says he will assess. I knocked on the walls during the viewing and I am pretty sure they sounded like stud and plasterboard, but obviously don't know for definite. They were built as part of an upstairs dormer conversion about a decade ago. 

There is electricity in the walls that would need removing, but I am doubtful there is pipework because the bathrooms are situated above bathrooms downstairs, but obviously I don't explicitly know that.

Here is a not perfectly to dimensions but hopefully close enough rendition of what I am trying to achieve.



I would be looking for a price that includes removing the whole of that 3.48m bedroom wall, replacing it with this short 1.11m wall across and 1.44m wall perpendicular to the old one. I would also need a small bit of wall around the stairs, it's currently banister there so that would need to be pulled out and replaced. Obviously would like it plastered up and neat and tidy ready to paint and put carpet down. Ideally I'd like to just use the same door that I would be removing to save buying a new one. 

If this is all stud wall as I thought, would this be a fairly straightforward job? I know that putting up stud walls is fairly simple. 

Also would I need to get building regs involved? As far as I understood it, non-load bearing walls don't need building regs however the surveyor says it would. 

I'm guessing most work could be completed by the builder I hire with exception of the electrician. 

I'm in the South East.

Rosa_Damascena

Unless the wall is load bearing and needs steels I cannot see that its is going to be that expensive. There are no foundations and even with trims I doubt it would come in at over £3k.

But then I'm no expert, I know someone that is though - Doozer?

greensalad

Rosa_Damascena said:

Unless the wall is load bearing and needs steels I cannot see that its is going to be that expensive. There are no foundations and even with trims I doubt it would come in at over £3k.

But then I'm no expert, I know someone that is though - Doozer?

Thanks, that does put me at ease as that's sort of what I was thinking/hoping for. Anything from £1,500 - £3,000 was my hope. 

Hopefully some others will have opinions too.

FreeBear

Just because it is a stud wall, do not assume that it isn't load bearing. It could be providing support for the ceiling joists/roof trusses.

If it is non-load bearing, your biggest issue at the moment is finding decent trades to do the work - Some have doubled or tripled the prices they charge and giving six month or more lead times. The cowboys are still doing the "we can start next week/month" routine... So no chance of having a decent job done before the end of the year.

stuart45

There are some that can take the floor joists below as well as the weight above. Normally used when there is a large room such as a ballroom below.
trussed partition - Bing

Section62

FreeBear said:

Just because it is a stud wall, do not assume that it isn't load bearing. It could be providing support for the ceiling joists/roof trusses.

I agree with this.  Creating a 'hallway' which is effectively wasted space, plus having two parallel full-width(/depth) walls makes me suspect the position and extent of those two walls means they have some structural function.  The position of the doorways also looks a bit odd to me, as if they might have been located around structural elements rather than ideal positions.

OP, if the walls aren't structural and you are going to the hassle and upheaval of having building work done, then have you considered also moving the door to the 8m2 room?  If you did that then either of the two layouts on the modified plan attached would be possibilities, creating even more space in the main bedroom.

Also, you need to be careful in the area circled in red where (on your layout and mine on the right) the new wall would interact with the stairs. Extending the en-suite wall in a straight line would appear to bring it out over the top of the stairs, in which case you might have headroom issues, and might also trigger building control involvement.

greensalad

Section62 said:

FreeBear said:

Just because it is a stud wall, do not assume that it isn't load bearing. It could be providing support for the ceiling joists/roof trusses.

I agree with this.  Creating a 'hallway' which is effectively wasted space, plus having two parallel full-width(/depth) walls makes me suspect the position and extent of those two walls means they have some structural function.  The position of the doorways also looks a bit odd to me, as if they might have been located around structural elements rather than ideal positions.

OP, if the walls aren't structural and you are going to the hassle and upheaval of having building work done, then have you considered also moving the door to the 8m2 room?  If you did that then either of the two layouts on the modified plan attached would be possibilities, creating even more space in the main bedroom.

Also, you need to be careful in the area circled in red where (on your layout and mine on the right) the new wall would interact with the stairs. Extending the en-suite wall in a straight line would appear to bring it out over the top of the stairs, in which case you might have headroom issues, and might also trigger building control involvement.

Fingers crossed it's not but I see what you mean. I do wonder if the reason it was built with the large hallway though was to make the rooms more similar in size? Basically the people that built this had it set up as a mini living room for their kids with a TV and sofa, and the two kids bedrooms either side. But understand it may well have been done for a reason! 

I would definitely consider moving the door to the smaller room if it wasn't too much hassle. I'm guessing it's not a small piece of work to move a door like that but like you say if going to the hassle might as well get it all done. Only thing was, I was hoping to fully decorate that room and get it moved in as it'd be our bedroom while we await being able to make changes.

As for stairs, tbh that is my dodgy floorplanning. The en suite wall matches up with the banisters on the end of the stair... hole (can you tell I don't know what I'm talking about?) so I don't think we'd need to intersect the stairs. I was hoping to leave it as-is but simply remove the banister that goes across the stairs on the short end and replace it with wall.

As you said intersecting stairs would mean building regs... does that mean no building regs if it's non-load-bearing? That's what I'm hoping but I've seen some conflicting advice. 

Section62

greensalad said:

Fingers crossed it's not but I see what you mean. I do wonder if the reason it was built with the large hallway though was to make the rooms more similar in size? Basically the people that built this had it set up as a mini living room for their kids with a TV and sofa, and the two kids bedrooms either side. But understand it may well have been done for a reason! 

I would definitely consider moving the door to the smaller room if it wasn't too much hassle. I'm guessing it's not a small piece of work to move a door like that but like you say if going to the hassle might as well get it all done. Only thing was, I was hoping to fully decorate that room and get it moved in as it'd be our bedroom while we await being able to make changes.

As for stairs, tbh that is my dodgy floorplanning. The en suite wall matches up with the banisters on the end of the stair... hole (can you tell I don't know what I'm talking about?) so I don't think we'd need to intersect the stairs. I was hoping to leave it as-is but simply remove the banister that goes across the stairs on the short end and replace it with wall.

As you said intersecting stairs would mean building regs... does that mean no building regs if it's non-load-bearing? That's what I'm hoping but I've seen some conflicting advice. 

Moving the smaller room door isn't a vast amount of work on top of the other changes - but it does depend on how willing you are to adapt your plans and live in chaos for a few days.  It does depend though on what structure, pipes, and electrics might be in the way.

One option, though possibly more expensive overall, would be to get that door moved as a mini-project first, allowing you to get on with working on that room and using it as a bedroom when the rest of the work is done.  The chances are you will need some intrusive investigation of those walls (e.g. making holes in the plasterboard) to find out what is going on, so it might be practical to combine those investigations with (hopefully) moving the first door.


Don't get overly concerned about the building regs process.  Building regs apply to much of the work you would be doing, the difference is the extent to which the work needs 'full plans' approval, 'building notice' and/or inspection, or is stuff you can just do. The process is there primarily to protect you, and trying to design work to avoid the need for BR involvement often results in a sub-optimal solution.

The first thing to do is to understand more about those walls. If they are structural then the other BR issues are trivial in comparison.

naf123

I am on the south east and I imagine this will cost more than 3k. 

New carpets for both room and hallway , plastering , electrical rewiring redecorating etc  make sure the studwork is insulated on the inside (for sound reasons ).  If you were anyway redecorating and putting new carpets then yes the cost is cheaper .

greensalad

naf123 said:

I am on the south east and I imagine this will cost more than 3k. 

New carpets for both room and hallway , plastering , electrical rewiring redecorating etc  make sure the studwork is insulated on the inside (for sound reasons ).  If you were anyway redecorating and putting new carpets then yes the cost is cheaper .

Yes we're planning to redecorate and re-carpet anyway so I wouldn't consider that as part of this cost as it'll be paid either way.

greensalad

Section62 said:

Moving the smaller room door isn't a vast amount of work on top of the other changes - but it does depend on how willing you are to adapt your plans and live in chaos for a few days.  It does depend though on what structure, pipes, and electrics might be in the way.

One option, though possibly more expensive overall, would be to get that door moved as a mini-project first, allowing you to get on with working on that room and using it as a bedroom when the rest of the work is done.  The chances are you will need some intrusive investigation of those walls (e.g. making holes in the plasterboard) to find out what is going on, so it might be practical to combine those investigations with (hopefully) moving the first door.


Don't get overly concerned about the building regs process.  Building regs apply to much of the work you would be doing, the difference is the extent to which the work needs 'full plans' approval, 'building notice' and/or inspection, or is stuff you can just do. The process is there primarily to protect you, and trying to design work to avoid the need for BR involvement often results in a sub-optimal solution.

The first thing to do is to understand more about those walls. If they are structural then the other BR issues are trivial in comparison.

Moving the door first is quite a good idea, and would also allow us to have a run with a builder to check we're happy with them I guess which can't hurt. I think I will definitely get quotes for doing it all at once vs just separate. If it means we can have a nice bedroom then that'd be great. We don't mind living in chaos for a few weeks as we have plenty of space downstairs but it would be nice to get on with decorating early.