Removing a solid internal wall in a newish house

Canucklehead

Good evening: Info on load bearing walls is available here .

HTH

Canucklehead

clairehi

So sorry I have got myself and everyone else confused. The floor boards that I have checked in the airing cupboard are perpendicular not parallel with the wall. However I will still be getting professional advice of course.

clairehi

I phoned 4 builders (from the FMB find a builder website search function) and they all want to come round and quote, 3 of them are coming tomorrow - Im impressed so far.

One of them asked about the supporting wall issue on the phone. He reckons it is not a supporting wall as it is parallel with the joists even though there is a stud wall above it.

clairehi

Well Ive now had 4 builders round to have a look. In full, we want to remove 3 small internal walls on the ground floor. All are block walls. Wall 1 is parallel to the joists and has a stud wall directly above. Wall 2 is parallel to the joists, no wall above. Wall 3 is perpendicular to the joists with no wall above. Parallel to the third wall there is an rsj running through the centre of the house which must be taking some of the weight of the joists.

No.1 builder refused to quote without a report from a structural engineer as walls may require support and he "did not want the house to fall down on us" (how thoughtful) but was unwilling/able to recommend me an SE. Doesnt want the job?

No 2 said, after asking which way the joists run and noting that all upstairs walls are stud walls stated that structural engineer not necessary as walls highly unlikely to be supporting anything . Worst case scenario - Building control would advise if there was a problem in their initial inspection at the beginning of the job.

No 3 - Wall 3 is load bearing but if the RSJ is big enough this will not be an issue. suggested chipping off plaster from RSJ to inspect it and getting the advice of Building Control at the beginning of the job. He stated Building Control would be able to say whether it was providing sufficient support is this realistic?

No. 4 - Initially stated that all 3 walls likely to require support , after checking the direction of the joists backtracked on this - did not fill me with confidence.

All 4 are FMB members

I feel no further on!

Doozergirl

They're all speculating, that's why it's not helping.

Try to find yourself a one man band structural engineer, check the yellow pages, plus there are also a couple of websites, if you google, that will return you the results of a search. From what I understand, they pay to be listed so you pay nothing.

We had a structural engineer out last night 'for a chat and then the relevant calculations'. He cost us the price of an hour of his time, looked at three walls, discussed a chimney breast, gave us the dimensions for an RSJ (not official calcs) and while he was here he looked round the outside of the house for other potential issues! He also let me sit on his motorbike!

The benefit is that it wasn't expensive, we know exactly what we're doing now and can get the relevant peeps in to help

clairehi

Doozergirl is right re the speculating. I rang up Building Control today, they are sending a surveyor round next week who hopefully will provide more definitive advice on what is required. I was pleasantly surprised they would send someone out on a look-see but there you go - if you dont ask you dont get I suppose.

clairehi

Building Control surveyor has just been round, what a nice chap! His opinion is it is highly unlikely that any of the walls are supporting. Excellent news!

To be 100% sure that all is well, the builder will need to check the size of the rsj which is supporting some of the upstairs joists as removing one of the walls will put an extra load on the steel. Mr Surveyor thinks that this will not be an issue looking at the size of the beam (plastered) but needs to be checked just in case.

He has suggested the size of the rsj can be easiest checked by lifting carpets and floorboards in upstairs hall. Will just have to ensure they dont make too much of a mess of this as we have lovely squeak free upstairs floor at the moment.

So on with the new kitchen!

woodbutcher_2

Good news all round,nice one.