Kitchen/Dinner Wall removal - Buttressing requirement

[Gio357]

Hello everyone, I am sure many have been in similar situation and I have tried searching through the forum prior to posting this thread.
1920s terrace house here, with the intention to remove the wall dividing kitchen and dinner.
A SE has visited the property and has confirmed the wall is not vertically loaded, ie it is not a load bearing wall. (all ceiling/1st floor joists run parallel to this and the wall is offset to any above stud partition walls)
The SE has recommended to leave a 450mm section of the wall, measuring from the inside of the external wall, as a lateral support.
I have read a number of thread regarding this and it always seems to be some unclear reasonings.

Looking at the Part A of the BR, it states that "long" walls should be supported on either end but also with a buttressing wall to split the overall length.
Now "long" does not seem to be defined in the short version of Plan A but it does seem to talk about walls under and over 9m in length.

What is your experienced with this, as I do understand the safest action is to allow for the 450mm to remain but curious as looking at rear single storey extensions there is no presence of a lateral supporting wall, other than the 2 side party walls.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this. Looking forward to some discussion.

 

[cdbe]

If you want it gone tell the SE and he'll do the calcs - or try submitting to BC first and see if they query it.

 

[Gio357]

Thank you for the reply. For my understanding, submitting to BC would be the normal process for removing a load bearing wall, as building regs clearly apply.
I am wrong in thinking removing a non load bearing wall as not being notifiable work and thus not needing BC approval?
And thinking out load, but if the SE would have suggested for all of the wall to be removed, still BC would not have been involved, correct?

I shall contact the SE once again and ask if he can provide some further explanation for this exact 450mm value, as there is currently no explanation behind this. (thinking why not 350 or 550mm..)

 

[cdbe]

Sorry, missed the bit about non load bearing. If the SE hasn't provided any calculations it's probably just an educated (or not) guess.

When I did mine (approaching 9m) I told the SE I didn't want any nibs - it was queried by BC - SE said the calculations would be quite onerous so instead produced a report stating that there was adequate stability provided by other elements throughout the house and this was accepted.

 

[^woody^]

A domestic external house wall does not need any buttressing along it's length.

 

[Gio357]

Hello, thank you both for the replies.
As suggested above, I contacted local BC and described the situation. They were not interested in any inspections nor did they suggest going to SE.
Additionally, luckily one of my neighbours, with the same property, has completed this work a couple of years prior and was kind enough to show me his SE response, which was to allow a single brick length as precautionary support..
So I shall do the same, knowing that the one brick length is more of a safery measure. (it also works with leaving a lught switch untouched)

Thank you both once again.