Internal walls and ceiling query

DiyVirgin

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone had any ideas. I brought a house in the summer which has a through lounge/diner that runs front to back of the property, we are looking to take down a wall between the kitchen and back half to make a kitchen/diner and install a wall with doors to make a separate living room at the front.

I have contacted a structural engineer to see if the kitchen wall is load bearing but I have a suspicion its not if the rule of thumb about the joists running parallel to the wall indicates it is not load bearing is correct (joists and wall run front to back of property). I appreciate this is not a hard and fast rule! But if it turns out to not be load bearing then what is holding up the upper floor of my house? Could there be supporting beams already installed when it was originally built?

It is (i think) a late 1930's build, terraced if that helps. Floor plan attached


Thanks for any help

FreeBear

A wall need not be supporting anything above to be structural - It could be buttressing the outer walls and stopping them from bowing out.

A 1930s house would probably have had a dividing wall in the middle of the lounge/diner - Most likely where you have a step in the wall. Removing the wall between kitchen & diner may not be possible (at a reasonable cost) if extra steels are required along with underpinned foundations. Your SE will be able to confirm. But he may need to open up parts of the walls to see what is behind the plaster.

DiyVirgin

Hi @FreeBear thanks for your reply.

We did originally wonder if there were 2 rooms but looking at other properties in the local area (large number all the same design) they all have the through louge/diner. They are ex local authority all built around the same time.

We will wait and see what the SE says