Knocking down wall beteeen two living rooms?

[Twinklz]

Hi all,

Looking for a bit of advice. We want to knock down the wall on our house between our two living rooms. Has anyone had his done?

I Wondering if anyone has any idea if it can be done by ourselves or if we need professionals in?

What would be the rough time frame and cost?

Many thanks

We've just had it done. Knocked down wall between kitchen and dining room. By my bil who is a builder. It is quite expensive, depends if its a load bearing wall and thus you need a steel support beam.

Get some proper builders in for a few quotes before you even begin.
I just cant see that you could do it on your own, unless you really know what you are doing. (my Dh is good at everything diy because he was forced to help his dad(a builder) and his brother(a builder) , when Dh was young. And even he said he wouldn't do it!!

causes incredible dust, and is a right nightmare - just warning you!!

We had a 3 metre wall knocked down and steel put in for £500 including cost of steel . We have done the rest of work ourselves . Only took them 5 hours to do. But the dust got everywhere .

depends if its a load bearing wall and thus you need a steel support beam

If it is a load bearing wall, it's not a DIY job.

If it’s loadbearing you will need to do a Building Control application as well.

Kitchen diners are popular but through living rooms less so I think. Unless the rooms are small individually I wouldn't do it unless you are planning on being there for a long time.

Thanks all.

So if it’s loadbearing, we need building control? Will have to give them a ring and find out cost.

I’m assuming with the amount of dust would need to repaint everywhere? How long did it take everyone?

Pickled olive- how long did it take you?

Wowfudge- yes the rooms are small, Can barely move In them.

We would like to move though eventually. It’s just hard living as it is with such small rooms.

We've just taken out a wall in our kitchen the steel alone cost us 1.5k and we've had to have the building inspector out 3 times. It's dusty and messy and In my case expensive 🙈

Your starting point is probably a structural engineer to advise whether the wall.is load bearing and to do the calculations for any steel needed.

Thanks all.

We had two walks knocked down as part of building work, my builder said about £1,000 just to knock down wall, put in rsj and making good. He recommend someone to do the structural calculations which were then approved by building control.
It's dusty but I kept the dust confined to the affected area, I would do it again and I hate cleaning!
If your rooms are small I bet it would make the house easier to sell in the future but get an agent in to check.

Thanks Mando

We took out several walls. DH is a Structural Engineer but builder started to knock down a wall down without putting temporary supports in for the floor above. Luckily it was spotted before it collapsed! Get professional advice! Watch builders like a hawk!

If you need building control DO NOT cover the beam, redecorate etc before they've inspected it! They will want to see the 'innards' - if you've covered it all up you'll have to expose it again.

Have done this job on a load bearing wall with the help of a builder friend - had to have the correct beam and props to hold the wall up. It is a job for pros really and very messy.

Thankyou both.

We did a few years ago. We got a structural engineer out for what was needed. My husband made the structural beam at work as he does it for a living. We got a builder in to supervise putting it in, but my husband and 6 of his work mates (they all lift steel for a living and are tall men i.e. don't attempt this using office workers) lifted it into place while the builder adjusted the supports for the upper floor. The beam was very heavy and the builder would normally have it lifted by machine.

It was definitely worthwhile. You have to get building control to sign it off and they checked when the beam had gone in and once plastered.

We did it, husband is an engineer and Dad a joiner so they knew what they were doing.

Speak to the local authority for sure (and ditto to PP that said don't decorate before it's all signed off!)

It's been absolutely worth it for us, the room is perfect now.

500 to 1500 sounds about right.

We paid 1800 for about 30m of steel.

Get multiple quotes.

Thanks everyone