Knock through on Timber Frame house

[jimjones235]

Hi, We're currently looking at buying a timber frame house (one of the mass produced Persimmon type homes built approx 10 years ago) - I'm presuming it's timber frame (ie sip panel) construction as that seems to be the way the big builders have worked for the last 10 years. Currently there is a small kitchen and we'd be wanting to knock that through to the lounge, if the house was traditional masonary construction it would probably be a easy process (I'd guess the joists run crossways and the wall we're thinking of removing would run parallel and with no wall directly above) and would just be a case of removing the stud partition wall.

In the timber frame world does this suddenly get more complicated?

We'd also consider removing part of the wall between the kitchen and hallway (this runs at 90 degrees to the other wall we're thinking of taking out), as this runs across the joists and has a stairway infront, I'd guess this has a higher chance of being structural (because it might be supporting the joists which don't make contact with the outer wall because of the stairway) or would the stairway be supported by the full length joists either sides? or self supporting off the newel posts?

As a side note, when (if) we buy the house we'd get a structural engineer to come and assess the situation, but obviously we can't really do that until the purchase goes through, so we're just trying to get the lay of the land up front.

 

[^woody^]

Timber frame and SIP are different.

Internal walls may or may not be supporting the floor, it's difficult to say, and no one not even an engineer will be able to tell just by looking at it. It will need some opening up.

The problem with removing supporting walls in timber framed houses, is the limited potential to place beams where you need them to be. Not impossible, but not easy, and it takes a proper look and design before a builder is let loose on it.

 

[bernardgreen]

As Woody said there is a lot of difference between frame and slab ( SIP ) construction.

In a post and beam construction few walls are structual ( load bearing ) and can be moved / removed freely. Some of the walls provide diagonal bracing to the frame but these are normally the external walls.

In a slab construction most of the walls are load bearing and cannot be removed without adding structural supports, ( posts and beams ) to take the weight that the wall was supporting.

 

[stuart45]

Hi, We're currently looking at buying a timber frame house (one of the mass produced Persimmon type homes built approx 10 years ago) - I'm presuming it's timber frame (ie sip panel) construction as that seems to be the way the big builders have worked for the last 10 years.

Persimmon build a lot of Traditional houses as well as timber framed.

 

[bobsuerita]

get somone to take a look
it will be a space 4 house now owned by persimmon
all internal walls are site contructed in timber or believe or not also metal
you may be able to contact space4 they will still have the designs for that house type and advise you

 

[noseall]

In the timber frame world does this suddenly get more complicated?

It can be more difficult to remove timber frame elements than it can to remove masonry counterparts, yes.

Invest in a reciprocating saw and some good (Bosch) bow saw type blades. The ply sheathing is usually fixed with ring-shank nails and is nigh on impossible to remove. The upright studs rarely fall where you want your opening jambs to be. I'd much sooner remove block-work.