Knocking through mid floor landing to build additional stairs to a planned extension.

fandyman

Hi,

Excuse me if this request for advice is beyond silly as my knowledge of structural works is low at the moment.

I am at the planning stage of building a two storey side extension. Before engaging SE I wanted to double check if anyone has experience on knocking dow part of walls (assume load-bearing?) around staircase to make space for new stairs to the 1st floor of the planned extension.

The idea is to knock through as much as possible height wise so that the general feel of the staircase is maintained and build about 7 steps to a landing that would lead through what is currently an existing en suite bathroom of a master bedroom to the planned extensions 1st floor area where new bedroom and bathroom will be. This will mean the bathroom will be replaced by a landing as attached.

Would it be possible to use set acrow props to support the stairs and then another set of acrow props from the middle landing up to support the wall if load bearing or I am talking complete nonsense and it is now possible. If however it is possible how high I could knock the opening through to make it look more like extended staircase and place the lintel above?

I wonder if it is at all possible from the structural and economical point of view. Let me know what are your thoughts.

The plans attached below are just for 1st floor as there is the main issue of stairs that lead to 1st floor extension through the current master bedroom ensuite.



This is proposed first floor plan:

This is existing 1st floor plan with indication where the extension landing is planned.

MikeJXE

Check out if it is load bearing and then if not it's a simpler job

It doesn't look load bearing to me, I would assume trusses go front to back (without seeing the roof) 

fandyman

Yes the trusses go front to back in that area I believe.

Ok I always assumed most if not all staircase walls are load bearing but maybe I was wrong.

Would that mean I could knock through to any height even the one indicated in red on the pictures?

Many thanks

MikeJXE

Put you head in the loft and see whats above that wall, if nothing then it's easy peasy 

You can remove all thats marked RED if you need that much

The doorway into the new extension is a different matter as that is a load bearing wall

Section62

fandyman said:

I am at the planning stage of building a two storey side extension. Before engaging SE I wanted to double check if anyone has experience on knocking dow part of walls (assume load-bearing?) around staircase to make space for new stairs to the 1st floor of the planned extension.

....

I wonder if it is at all possible from the structural and economical point of view. Let me know what are your thoughts.

Get a structural engineer to advise you.

Ignore people on the internet who claim to be able to work out whether something is structural or not based on a couple of photos and a plan, or have some kind of theory about how you can tell.

Structural engineering is more complicated than that.

The only other comment I'd make would be aware that the internal walls around domestic staircases are often used to give lateral stability to other walls - hence the particular importance of getting professional advice in your case.

Section62

MikeJXE said:

Put you head in the loft and see whats above that wall, if nothing then it's easy peasy 

You can remove all thats marked RED if you need that much

That is really bad advice.  You can't tell whether a wall is structural just by looking whether there is anything above it.

Removing the wall marked red could leave the external wall unstable, possibly risking structural collapse.

stuart45

There was a similar question on another forum about removing a wall near the landing with nothing on top. There was some advice it was safe to remove, although he wisely decided not to, just painted after stripping the path and plaster. Might be a bit risky for any kids though.

Doozergirl

stuart45 said:

There was a similar question on another forum about removing a wall near the landing with nothing on top. There was some advice it was safe to remove, although he wisely decided not to, just painted after stripping the path and plaster. Might be a bit risky for any kids though.

Just kids?! 

daivid

My thought, besides echoing the advice to get proper professional advice, is that the costs of getting the stairs planned out properly will be negligible on the total cost of the project. It would be cheaper to run a corridor through the current bedroom but the loss of value by turning a decent room into a box room makes the cost of the stairs worth it.

fandyman

Thanks for your advice. My thinking was along the same lines of building additional staircase.

I was just wondering if there was anyone in a similar situation and had to knock down a wall in a similar configuration that's all.

This thread is not to avoid SE involvement but to just listen to ppl stories and advice before I commit myself to one idea or another.

I do not want to call SE just yet before I commit myself to this approach. Besides his wasted time there will be a charge so I want to make sure I am charged for something that is likely to work.

Doozergirl

fandyman said:

Thanks for your advice. My thinking was along the same lines of building additional staircase.

I was just wondering if there was anyone in a similar situation and had to knock down a wall in a similar configuration that's all.

This thread is not to avoid SE involvement but to just listen to ppl stories and advice before I commit myself to one idea or another.

I do not want to call SE just yet before I commit myself to this approach. Besides his wasted time there will be a charge so I want to make sure I am charged for something that is likely to work.

Anything is possible.   You really do need a structural engineer.  Pretty much anyone who builds an extension will, it's a part of the process and a pretty small bill in the grand scheme of an extension.  But an important one.  

If there is something challenging that increase costs then any decent SE will come up with an alternative, but you need to crack eggs to make an omelette.