Costs: knocking through wall & French windows

[lussie]

Hi, I was hoping you could help me to work out approximate costs of the following work to be done in a house we're planning to buy:

• knocking through a load-bearing wall (I'd like a sort of arch where the wall used to be; have seen this in various properties we viewed)
• transforming a window at the end of the sitting room into French doors opening onto the garden
• putting in laminate where carpet used to be in sitting room (8.5 x 7m approximately, once the walls are knocked through)

We're only looking for an approximate idea; basically we'd like to have a figure we can give our mortgage advisor so we know how high a mortgage we'll need (which would still enable us to do this work). I'm hoping someone might have had these things done recently or one of these at least and can give me an idea of how much it costs. I'm completely aware that each house is different but tbh I don't even know if we're looking at 1000 - 4000£ for each of those....!

I've started to look into enlarging an external opening & from my research my guesstimate is 1300 & the loading bearing wall about 1000 & you will need building regs. From memory laminate is about 10-20 a meter to lay. So there's some very rough figures for you, hopefully someone with actual experience will post as I'd be interested too

We had an arch put into a load bearing wall last week (they put in a steel beam). That work cost ?500.

We also had a structural engineer come in beforehand, at a cost of ?300 (offering advice on more than just the archway, mind), and building control.

Still have to plaster as well. One thing I would check is to see what electrics/heating the wall currently has. Do these things need moved or put in elsewhere? Our wall had radiators on it, so we have had to find alternatives to this. We are doing a lot of work (moving a kitchen to a different room) so I have that ocst factored in elsewhere, but its worth considering.

Think the estimates of removing a load bearing wall and putting an RSJ in above are really low. We've done it twice (wall between kitchen and dining room). First time was very straight forward, cost was about £1500 (that was in 2005) then second time it involved moving some pipes too and it was about £3k.

I'd say french doors would be about £1000-1500 and laminate £3-400.

Thanks for your replies! I got the measurement of the sitting room wrong (doubling the width as well :D) so it'd be 8.5 x 3.5 m.

Anyone else had a wall knocked through recently to merge two rooms?

I'd budget £5kfor the lot of it. We just had some French windows done - £1.5k each.

Knocking through the wall abd putting another in and all making good as part of another project was just over £5kk - so less for just knocking through.

I'd budget up to £1k for the laminate.

Better to come in under rather than not budget enough in the first place.

Assuming your arch is double leaf width, I'd say about £2k. Same for altering window opening and putting in french door (assuming fairly plain UPVC going in). (Similar to work we've just had done - in SW London.) Laminate - no idea (has been many years since we've done this and quality can vary) Say £1,500?