Remove 2x Load Bearing Wall Cost?

Hi,

I'm James, been stalking topics on here for a little while - but now have a question of my own.

I have a fairly typical "2 up 2 down" terrace, with a kitchen off the back of the dining room. The dining room is dark, with little natural light, and really only serves as a corridor from the louge to the kitchen.

Orginally the stairs were up the middle of the house, flanked by 2 load bearing walls. One has already been removed to open the stairs onto the lounge. I wish to remove the other, and install a new staircase on the wall ajoining the new door. This creates a fairly good sized open plan downstairs, finally making use of the dining room space and allowing much better light. I am also removing the wall directly above this, to make use of the space gained upstairs when the stairs have moved.

I've had the calculations done for the beams & padstones. I require...

178 x 102 x 19 UB S275 (4 meters) with 300 x 100 C15 padstones 203 x 203 x 46 UC S275 (4 meters) with 600 x 100 C15 padstones

I only require a builder to install the beam/padstones. I'll be taking away the wall underneath. No "making good, "boxing in", taking away

The quotes I've had so far are £2k - £3k - which I think is high...

My "fag packet" calcualations are:

RSJ's: ~£150 each

4x Padstones: ~£20 each 4x Week Strongboy Hire: ~£160 3x labour at ~£100/day: ~£300 (2 day job?)

I'm struggling to get past £1200.

Question is, am I being miles too optermistic or getting ripped off?!

Reply to
jagillham
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The wall upstairs is likely also supporting the roof(purlins). Have you taken this into account?

The man you have asked may have decided he doesn't want the job. One way out is to offer an unrealistic price.

You need to cover for overheads in the price.

Reply to
harry

I certainly hope so! :)

The engineer checked all about, including the loft. The upstairs beam is over spec'd on the basis there maybe a future loft conversion.

One of the issued raised by the 1st chap who came around is that for upstairs the stairs are on the wrong side of the wall to allow easy installation. The first quote I rec'd probably did not know I am moving the stairs anyway, so could allow the RSJ to be fitted standing on the floor, rather than a work platform above the stairs.

Reply to
jagillham

Freindly nudge:

It's good to quote so people can see context :)

Reply to
Tim Watts

That's a bit like getting some work done by a solicitor where the bulk is done by a clerk. He may only get 15 quid an hour, but you still get charged 150.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Are you sure they're load bearing? My terraced house has floor joists running side-to-side, parallel to the stairs in the middle of the house, and the walls each side of the stairs is stud and plaster. Would make the engineering easier and cheaper if yours is the same.

JGH

Reply to
jgh

House is about 1903, engineer has got on the calcs for beams being flush into the wall... ie no piers?! Not got the exact wording to hand, but said along the lines of can be either attached to wall, set into wall or on piers.

Reply to
jagillham

ndations under the piers as well?=20

When I had something similar done the structural engineer said I should dig= metre deep foundations and not rely on the old wall foundations at all. I = also needed piers. Of course, your situation is different and I'd do what = your structural engineer says, naturally.

AIUI, There are two issues, one is whether it needs piers to give it latera= l strength. But the other is whether it needs concrete pad foundations to t= ake the weight of the wall above the beam. In my case I needed both. The= weight of the wall above the new beam used to be spread across the whole l= ength of the wall, now it's going to be concentrated at two points (below t= he ends of the beam) putting a much higher loading on the foundations at th= ost points.=20

Robert=20

Reply to
RobertL

I'm not sure about that. The design of a normal brick wall spreads the loads quite well. I have a Victorian house with little in the way of foundations, and needed no such thing when removing the load bearing wall on the ground floor - just a padstone cast in place about 1 metre long if memory serves. Half the thickness of the external wall. All calculated by a decent structural engineer.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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