If you were a vendor - would you let a structural engineer in before completion?

[Loueytb3]

About to exchange on an house We are currently renting and want to do some work on the house before we move in. Part of this involves taking down a wall between the kitchen and dining area to make a bigger room (see pic). The difficulty is that we are having trouble finding out whether the wall is a supporting wall or not. The builder has been there and looked up through the spotlights and can see concrete on the 1st floor which he says is unusual. We have been trying (in vain) to track down the architectural plans for the house (which was built in 2002/2003). The closest I've got is to speak to someone at building control who can see the documents but won't let us have copies. Based on what he says the wall isn't likely to be structural. However our builder is being cautious and wants to get a structural engineer in to see for sure. This will involve cutting out a section of the ceiling on either side of the wall we take down. If you were a vendor, would you let your buyers in to do this before completion? The mess will be cleared up and the ceiling put back. The vendor isn't living there are the moment but may have house guests there from time to time. We have changed the completion date to suit him and we want to start work as soon as we complete so we are concerned about delaying things further if we can't establish whether it's a supporting wall before completion.

The drawings are under copyright and BC don’t have rights to reproduce them. What you could do is ask for the name of the company that produced them and any project number on them and contact detail, they usually have initials of the person who did the drawing and who checked it. Then you can call the company that has the copyright and talk to them. They may sell them to you for a small fee or just send you a copy, maybe even consider using that company for the works. Bare in mind though that they they may not have been present on site when things were actually built so it is possible things may be different, but probably unlikely to have fundamentally changed a load bearing wall.

Ah. That might explain it. Although it doesn't explain the blurb on their website. I can try asking for the company name that produced them but I have already contacted the builder who has no records as its over 10 years old. The architect appears to have retired (or is dead). It's worth a shot though.

In the lounge we didn’t have the space beteeen the ceiling and the floor above to hide the beam but because the room is fairly big, the beam does not feel intrusive. I hope you can get the rooms you want out of the house and hope any beam design is straightforward.

So an update. The vendor was kind enough to allow a structural engineer and the builder to go into the house on Monday. They removed three sections of wall/ceiling. The bad news is that the wall is structural. There is one steel beam within the wall at head height which is holding the roof to the bay window. There is another steel beam above the ceiling which is holding up the wall of the bedroom above. This sits on a padstone in the wall we want to take down (basically where the wall changes direction). Structural engineer is trying to come up with a plan. I am sure whatever is it (if indeed one is possible) will cost us £££. Argh.

Oh dear! However you will get what you want in the end. Don’t forget that beams can be T beams and don’t have to sit on a pier. If you look at my porch picture, you can open up a space by creative use of beams. Hope your Structural Engineer can do a great design!

I hope so too Bubbles. Your pics give me hope that something can be done. It's just how much it's going to cost

I have chased the engineer but no response so far. I don't know how long I should expect him to take. We may need re-design the entire kitchen based on what he comes up with.