[Closed] Knocking out a load-bearing wall - cost?

How big is the wall to be removed?

Approx. 3.5m? I'll measure up when I'm home from work later. Just for more info, there is electricity in the wall and some copper piping (external to the wall) near the door frame which hopefully can be moved easily.

Don't forget to prop it up before demolishing it 😀

The window should already have a lintel so you should be able to replace the window with a door with minimal fuss if it is the same width, if you want to go wider then it is a lot more work. You do need to check though as some windows are load bearing. As for the dining room wall, do you mean an internal wall? It's not too big a job and pretty standard work. Is it a 1930s house? There are plenty around Bristol and many have had the wall between the dining room and the kitchen removed as the kitchens are very small. We extended instead and kept the old kitchen as a utility. Far less disruption, we were never without a working kitchen, and you end up with more space. Not actually that much more expensive but I did a lot of the work myself

We've not got much room to add width to the doors even if we wanted to, so they'll be the same width.

Yes sorry internal dining room wall, 1890s terraced house. The kitchen & utility is further out the back, this is to join the dining room and hall together. I'll try and post some floorplans this evening. We looked at a lot of houses before we bought this one and quite a few had this done, so it's a v. common job in this part of Bristol (East).

It’s not too big a job and pretty standard work

Well, standard work, yes, but a lot depends on what's above and below.
Definitely structural engineer required to do calcs and supply steel specs - probably £500 for that.
You'll need this doing first TBH as the builder will want to see what's required.

Steels itself will depend on whats required but budget £4-500
Depending upon what the wall is holding up, and the depth of the foundations - you 'may' need a steel pier or two to hold the beam.
You're going to need an electrician and maybe a plumber (external copper pipe - gas???)
That's before you get into the labour.

More to it than you think.

Not underestimating the amount of work required at all! Just wanted an idea of what's involved.

The wall is in the middle of the house, so probably holds most of the upstairs up.I have a feeling the copper pipe is for the central heating as it's going up the wall rather than across.

First thing on the list is to find a structural engineer then!

Easy way to check if it's load bearing. Lift the floor boards at first floor and see if the joists span onto the wall. Check both sides! Also is the wall in the same place upstairs?

It may not be load bearing in which case it becomes an easier task. However, get someone to check your findings before knocking the crap out of the wall 🙂

.....you'll also need buildng regs approval. We used a private company which turned out to be much quicker and cheaper than using the council.

You don't necessarily need a structural engineer. We had building control out and they said they wouldn't require calcs if we used certain size of beam.

We did a most of the work ourselves to cut down on costs, so I sorted out a skip, bought the beam, applied for building control, we just had a builder in one morning to install the beam itself (100 quid). We then knocked the wall out underneath ourselves and he came back a few days later for his props, and then we made good ourselves.

For a single wall, the calcs will probably be £250 inc a visit by the Engineer.

A 3.5m span is quite a large chunk of steel eg our neighbour had their back wall removed and replaced with a large bifold thing:

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I'd guess several £k for installing that.

@benslatt

The cost for creating a new opening in the load bearing wall could vary from c£2k-£5k depending on builder the final rsj beam required and amount of remedial work to make good ie plastering, electrics etc.

The window to french door c£800-£2k plus door.

Structural calcs for that circa £300 each.

Building control will also need to sign off on works and this cost will depend on locality. You can also use an approved independent building inspector. Again allow up to £300.

I would find a builder that has a structural engineer they use rather than sourcing separately.

A decent builder team could do that work in a week.

Think we paid about £2800 for a local builder to take out a ~3m load bearing wall in our 1930's house 3 years ago. That price didnt include all the making good/plastering etc as we did that ourselves, but it did include the steel, the building control stuff, the structural engineer calcs etc. Took a week to complete.

Thanks everyone, definitely not a DIY job for us, still earning our DIY chops as this is our first house, so maybe a few smaller projects before I take a sledgehammer to the wall...

Will start to phone around builders and get some quotes. Estimates here are quite similar to what my uneducated guesses were, but timescales much shorter.

My OH works at an architects and has drawn the plans of what we want up, so will try and get hold of them and share them on here later.

If anyone knows/can suggest any builders around Bristol that would be a bonus!

We used a private company which turned out to be much quicker and cheaper than using the council.

This, in my experience of my local council planning & building control they are time consuming needlessly complex and more expensive YMMV