Removing a load bearing wall

[m0therofdragons]

We have a wide opening between our kitchen and dining room which looks like it has a beam above. There is about a meter of wall still remaining. If we removed the rest of the wall and put one doorway to the kitchen /diner (currently an entrance to each either side of the wall) there would be space for a kitchen island. But how much would that kind of work actually be (really roughly). I've no idea if it's even worth considering.

Can anyone help?

I’m confused. Would you not just have an open plan kitchen diner? Take all the wall down and no doorway? I would allow £2000 for this but I would have all the wall down so it’s entirely open and you can then have an island that you can walk around.

I meant to say, each end of the beam will need to be supported at both ends in either the existing walls or by the addition of a small pier if the walls are not deep enough to house the beam safely.

Sorry @BubblesBuddy essentially I mean change opening to fully open removing the wall all the way but not sure if the reason they didn't do so originally was due to it being load bearing.

Well something has to hold the house up!

A builder won't remove a structural wall. When you knock on it, does it sound solid, or hollow? I'm guessing it's solid, which has a more tinny sound from your knuckle. It will be structural.
If it's a hollow wall (bit of an echo off wall), then it's not structural. It's probably just plasterboard or something. That you can break through.

I suppose an engineer could look at replacing the structural wall with pillars or something, but you'd be talking a fair few quid for them to come out, look at plans etc.

Yes, they might have left some wall to hold up the room above. However, if you think there is a beam above above the opening, they could just have opened it up enough to meet their needs.

A Structural Engineer would be able to tell you if it’s a load bearing wall. If if is, and you remove it, clearly that has implications for the room above! Therefore if you don’t know what the wall is doing, get a Structural Engineer to check it.

If you want the remaining wall removed, a beam must be inserted to bear the weight of the room above. It does this by dispersing the weight into the ground via the walls at either end. To do this, the beam must be effectively housed and embedded in the wall at both ends. If this isn’t possible, an extra little bit of wall (pier) has to be built to support the ends of the beam so it’s tied into the structure and deflects the load into the ground. See picture.

At least this is what DH, a Structural Engineer, says and it’s what we have in our house in several places. We have a beam of nearly 5m in one room so it could be the wall was left because they chickened out of designing and building it properly! They just put in a small beam or opened it up so the wall still supported the floor above. Either way, don’t do anything until it’s checked. You can then get a beam calculated and installed by a competent builder.

Thanks bubbles.

In new builds the structural walls often sound hollow so tapping isn't a good way to check!

Assuming it is load bearing, the cost is probably similar to knocking the whole wall through from scratch. And bear in mind that you might not be able to remove the whole of the wall so it is flush with the perpendicular wall.

Oh, and in new build, assuming traditional masonry construction, then the load bearing walls will probably be blockwork, non-load bearing in timber studs. But there are more non-traditional builds around these days, so knowing what type of construction is obviously pretty important!

(Isn't it time to change username btw )

Get an engineer to look at the span and what the walls either side are made of and the size of the potential bearing. You can do without piers if the walls the padstones (for the new lintel or RSJ/steel) are on are of sufficient size and strength.
I imagine this work would need to come up to Building Regs and thus an engineers report would need to be submitted and proof that the appropriate padstones and steel have been used. It;s straightforward enought though.
Engineer to have a look and make a report? £400 for this job here. I'm not sure about the cost of BR's because we paid that along with a stack of other work done.

@whatsthecomingoverthehill nope, if you met my dc you'd realise my user name is relevant with or without GoT

I just had this done.

Structural Engineer incl plans £400
Removal of wall incl steel beam and some electric work £3.5 k

Builders told us it wasn't possible!!! The structural engineer said "everything is possible".

It is fab and has totally changed the kitchen space we have. We are so glad we did it.

We just had a 3.7 m opening knocked through in our house . Structural engineer report was £600 ish , and the knock through and steel fitting was 3k , that didn’t include plastering . We had already paid for building regs as it was an extension being built that we were opening into IYSWIM . The new beam had to have pink plaster board put on it to pass building regs so that also needs factoring in .