Removal of Wall between Kitchen & Dining Room

[ljmountain]

I am looking for advice\opinions on whether we can knock down a brick wall between our kitchen and dining room. Located above the wall is our bathroom, the wall runs parallel to the bathroom wall (but not above) and is located in line with the toilet and middle of the bathroom entrance.

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• ljmountain
• 12 Apr 2010
• 2

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• ljmountain
• 12 Apr 2010
• 1

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• ljmountain
• 12 Apr 2010
• 1

I've lifted the floorboards and can see two joists running the full width of the house either side of where the wall is located (the joists are about 80cm apart). I cannot see the brickwork for the wall however I can see a wooden support that is obviously sitting upon the wall. The wooden support does not run the length of the house, I can see that this runs from the outside wall to the entrance of the bathroom (it lies directly betwen the joists inline with the toilet).

I would be very interested to understand the purpose of this support, it looks like it is there to provide support for the toilet. I think I have read that walls like this can exist to provide support for exterior walls.

What process would be involved in knocking down the wall? Ideally we want to completely remove the wall so that kitchen units can be mounted flush to the wall (i.e. no supporting brickwork for steel beams).

The house is a 1952 council built property in Hertfordshire, I expect this type of build is very common.

Thanks you in advance.

 

[big-all]

you will need a steel to support the wall
whats in the attic above the wall!!

the joists should be at 400mm centres

 

[ljmountain]

Big-all thanks for the quick reply.

Can I check three things:
1) Did I make it clear that the bathroom wall is not built directly above the wall between the kitchen/dining room? This wall is built directly on the one of the joists that run the length of the house.
2) What would be the purpose of the wall betwen the kitchen\dining room if there is no wall directly above it?
3) If we have to have a steel is there anyway to have it without having the supporting columns in the kitchen e.g. so that we can fit the kitchen units flush to the wall.

Thanks again.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Ideally you need someone to do calcs on it like a structural engineer (costs money)
If your knocking a supproting wall down and installing an RSJ, building controls will need to be informed(costs money)
When knocking the wall down, acros will be used to support the above floor and the RSJ can sit on the walls either side rather than pillars.
If your SE says it's okay to do that!

 

[Static]

To be honest your description lost me a little.. maybe some plans would help

Anyways you say the walls dont line up.. also that your joists are 800mm centres.. sounds a little like the wall did at some point go all the way up.. but someone decided to move / remove the bathroom part.. any chance that the bathroom was a split toilet / bath in the past?

 

[ljmountain]

Here is a plan for the house, this is pretty much to scale. What is interesting is that most of the upstairs walls don't appear to be above the downstairs walls.

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• ljmountain
• 13 Apr 2010
• 2