Supporting walls with acros

[P.J.]

Dear All,

I'm about to join my kitchen with the dining room. I have building regs approval to begin.

I need some help on 2 things:

Where can I get official calcs for the beam size required - I've heard you can get them done for about £80, but the first structural engineer I contacted wanted £500 for a call out Any advice please ?

Also, the wall I'm removing supports the first floor joists (no wall above) so I'll support it with acros. My question is, how do you know when you've wound the acro up enough so the floor wont sag when you remove the wall, but not too much so you could damage your joints upstairs ? Is it a matter of eel or just take up the slack plus one turn ? Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

PJ.

 

[breezer]

to me it sounds like you need a builder

 

[P.J.]

thanks for the vote of confidence. what I need is some advice regarding my questions.

 

[masona]

Approx £120 round here, the structural engineer will save you money by using the correct minimum size RSJ as needed. A lot of builders has gone over the top with the sizes which is unneccessary. I don't know how confident you're but please ask if you're not sure, the builder inspector will help you as well.

I don't want to see you in the DIY Disaster section.

 

[jeds]

What is the width of the opening? I charge between £300 and £400 for these calculations.

It's not just the amount of time involved (average 5 hours) but you have to consider PI insurance costs. Anybody who under-charges is exposing you to risk as the insurance company will not cover full costs if the charge for the work was not adequate.