Chums
I phoned a structural engineer, wanting them to run their eye over a wall I want to do some work to. There's two doors separated by a foot or so of brickwork. Plan is to remove the doors and the intervening brickwork and to put an rsj or whatever across the gap.
They're quoting 300 english squids to come over and to provide a report. Seems a bit OTT to me. Any observations?
Mark
Our charged a bit more than that. he came with a builder (spade included) who dug a couiple of holes and then filled them in. The guy with the spade cost me over £200.. for a couple of hours work on a Saturday morning.
We had a structural engineer over a few years back to examine a wall and make recommendations, and he charged a little over £200. Was on-site for about 1 hour. I was happy with that.
You have to take into account travel time, report writing time etc.
Doesn't seem inherently unreasonable
Sounds reasonable. To give them a chance to do the job properly remove plasterwork so they can see what existing lintelling there is. Hopefully their report will detail exactly what is required and a builder will quite against it - or you can take it to a steels merchant and say "I want one of those". Will also keep Building Control happy.
Owain
And liability insurance as well.
Phones another one and he quoted 175squids. Now I'm worried he's too cheap. Doh!
MIf the doors are only 3feet wide * 2 and 1 foot in between you are only talking about a 7 foot opening. As long as there are no apparent flaws with the existing wall I would buy a catnic lintel (subject to what is above) to suit and get a recommended builder to put in or advise. Building regs are probably required but they will accept an off the shelf lintel. Again a good builder will have had the experience.
Legin, you are dead right.
It is not as if the Struct. Eng. is going to say that the RSJ must be
7.92837465 inches deep and 4.847294756 inches high. It is going to be from stock so put in a big fat one.What is above the lintel anyway. Apparently if you opening is 7 Feet then the lintel has to support the weight of material in an equilateral triangle of 7 Foot sides and the wall thickness.
Chris.
... and qualification (a few years a uni.), and gaining experience, and insurance. Just think what you pay a surveyor for a valuation survey (10 minutes at most) - no responsibility for anything reported and/or missed, an estate agent, etc. I think this is good value.
I would also wonder if you need a struc eng report for that. The q in my mind would be what is being supported above that 7', is it not just a case of some wall?
Theres a house I saw with an opening somewhere around 7' wide with no support at all. Bricks have stayed there for centuries, how I dont know. All previous owners must have been very prompt about repairing mortar cracks!
NT
In message , Mark writes
On the one hand I think his fee might be reasonable, on the other hand I think he's taking the pee.
I recently had an architect round to do plans for a loft conversion, he then had to commission a structural engineer. We now have detailed plans (which the architect also managed through to building control approval) for the full loft conversion including the structural work. Total cost
475 + BC fees.In that sense, 300 squids sounds expensive for your single wall. In the sense of 300 squids to be responsible for the structural integrity of your house, well, I wouldn't do it :-)
Hth
Somewhat sheepishly, I have now to own up to having spent some time with some graph paper, mapping out what I want the redone kitchen to look like, only to realise that the wall in question doesn't in fact go up and become a bedroom wall, but evidently stops at the ceiling of the ground floor. So it looks like the load-bearing element isn't necessaarily an issue.
The house is 100yrs old, and it looks like that there were very few walls going from ground floor to the first floor - just the interior walls of the front room in fact, as the plans suggest that as with many Edwardian houses of this type, the 'back' room wan't separated from by a corridor from the stairs. And the back part of the house had sequentially a breakfast room/kitchen/pantry/toilet - coalbunker - washroom/ separated by walls which didn't go up into the first floor. And above them the back of the first floor has sequentially a bathroom/toilet/bedroom3/bedroom4 all separated by walls built on (presumably) joists rather than coming from the floor below.
However, as there has already been a wall removed (between the kitchen and breakfast room), and two chimneys have been removed on the ground floor, but remain on the first floor and go up to full chimney posts on the roof, I'll go ahead with the engineer, just to be on the safe side.
Mark
In article , Mark writes
It's probably holding up the upstairs floor though so you probably still need calcs. Days of "if you put in an 8" steel I'll approve it but if you want to put in less I'll need to see the calcs" seem to have gone.
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