Changing position of wall between 2 bedrooms

[BigBooBoo]

Hi there,

Currently in the process of looking at 3 bed properties to buy, not much has come on the market recently but I love everything about this house apart from the size of the third bedroom.

Can anyone tell me what they would do in this position? Is it easy enough to move the wall between bedroom 2 and 3 to make bedroom 3 bigger? Is there any way of taking away some of the landing maybe?

I have no idea where to even start, is it even worth the work and expense for the additional space, how much larger do you think we could make it?

Thanks fr your help!

No idea, could be a stud wall built after the floor and ceiling were in in which case moving the wall is easy enough, but it could be masonry holding up the roof or the second floor if any in which case not so easy and you'd usually have to leave bits in place around the sides and top.
Also you have to think about matching the skirting boards and new flooring in the extended room. Also the floor and ceiling may not match height exactly requiring work done there. Also radiators and sockets if any would need dealing with.

I've seen it done before Bed
3 wall just moves further into bed 2, inexpensive if it's a stud wall.

Looks like you could take out the cupboard over the stairs and make that part of a bed platform for either raised single or double bed which would make better use of the space and flow of bed 2 especially if you made it narrower to increase the width of bed 3

@johnd2 is right, first you need to work out if the wall between room 2 & 3 is a retaining wall (i.e holding up the house) or a stud partition wall.

Firstly look downstairs to see if there is a wall exactly underneath the one between bed 2 & bed 3. If there isn't one, then the chances are that it isn't a retaining wall.

If there is a wall immediately underneath then you need to determine the type of wall, both up and down. If it sounds hollow when you tap it, it's probably a stud partition which should be fairly easy to move. This is a wooden frame with sheets of plasterboard on both sides, hopefully with some insulation in-between.

If sounds solid when you tap it then it's not a stud partition wall. If there is a wall downstairs too then it's probably a retaining wall, in which case you are a bit stuck.

If it's a solid wall upstairs but there isn't a wall downstairs then it's probably not a retaining wall. It could be brieze blocks (slightly newer house, say 1980s) or bricks (older house). Messy to knock down, but you can replace with a stud partition wall.

If you can move the wall at all, then how far you can move it seems to be limited by the position of the door of the built-in wardrobe in bed 2.

Needs a builder really, but that should give you a steer at least.

That’s brilliant! Thank you very much for all your replies they’ve been so helpful! I’m going to book a second viewing to inspect further.

Look at that built in cupboard, I assume the floor is raised for the stair bulkhead. Removing that cupboard and replacing with a raised bed platform in that corner would really open it up.

@filka said.
If there is a wall immediately underneath then you need to determine the type of wall, both up and down. If it sounds hollow when you tap it, it's probably a stud partition which should be fairly easy to move. This is a wooden frame with sheets of plasterboard on both sides, hopefully with some insulation in-between.

This is not reliable I am afraid. We have solid walls that have been plaster boarded. The board goes on the wall with a dot and dab and therefore is hollow for a small amount of space behind it

Also, if you move the wall further into the bedroom, it looks like the window will not be in the correct place for the new space which will be a job to move it

Name change fail OP?

We have solid brick wall downstairs and directly above it. When we did some major work we discovered that they didn't meet and the upstairs wall sat just on the floorboards so not a supporting wall at all!!!

TBF it was a small house...

If you move the wall bedroom two will become small. Can you extend into the loft instead?

We're in the process of moving a stud wall by 2 foot in an upstairs bedroom. It's costing about £2.5k

@randommess just because it's built in the floor boards doesn't mean it's not structural, we have a wall built in upstairs floorboards which is holding the central roof post up. I know this because a structural engineer designed it based on the previous roof support mechanism which was similar but not probable to modern standards.
to really know the status of a wall you need a structural engineer, and you would also need one to plan how to remove a structural wall.