Rough Costs for building work - removing walls and chimneys
Discussion
Hi Everyone,
Finally getting to the stage of looking to buy my first house (on my own), and have seen a nice little 2 up 2 down terrace that has a lot of potential, but needs quite a lot of work - I rented a similar house two streets away for about a year, and have a few ideas that I reckon would make it a cracking house, but would like to get a few opinions/rough costings for a couple of things I'd want to do.
First off, there is a dividing wall between what is currently the lounge and dining room area - I'm pretty sure it's a supporting wall, as the wall between the two bedrooms upstairs is directly above. I'd want to remove this wall (I'm presuming it would be doable, but need an RSJ and a Structural Engineer to calculate it and build a new wall about 1.5m further back to create a better sized lounge and better use of space - any guesses what this would cost to do? Span would be about 4.5m between the party walls.
There used to be a chimney in the lounge, which has been removed, but is still there in the bedroom above - I'd be worried if it had been properly supported, and would really like an open fire, so any guesses on costs to reinstate the chimney brest downstairs and get an open fire up and running again - I'm guessing a new chimney liner and chimney post would be needed as well?
There is a big chimney brest (complete with tiny open fire and back boiler) in the dining room - I'd want to remove this right up inside the loft, to free up space in the dining room and bedroom above - from what I've read on here and the web I thing it would be RSJs in the loft spanning between supporting walls rather than just gallows brackets - anyone got any ideas what it would cost to do this?
Last point is that the gas meter has been removed and capped off - any ideas for costs on re-instating the gas supply?
Cheers for any replies,
Fatboy
Finally getting to the stage of looking to buy my first house (on my own), and have seen a nice little 2 up 2 down terrace that has a lot of potential, but needs quite a lot of work - I rented a similar house two streets away for about a year, and have a few ideas that I reckon would make it a cracking house, but would like to get a few opinions/rough costings for a couple of things I'd want to do.
First off, there is a dividing wall between what is currently the lounge and dining room area - I'm pretty sure it's a supporting wall, as the wall between the two bedrooms upstairs is directly above. I'd want to remove this wall (I'm presuming it would be doable, but need an RSJ and a Structural Engineer to calculate it and build a new wall about 1.5m further back to create a better sized lounge and better use of space - any guesses what this would cost to do? Span would be about 4.5m between the party walls.
There used to be a chimney in the lounge, which has been removed, but is still there in the bedroom above - I'd be worried if it had been properly supported, and would really like an open fire, so any guesses on costs to reinstate the chimney brest downstairs and get an open fire up and running again - I'm guessing a new chimney liner and chimney post would be needed as well?
There is a big chimney brest (complete with tiny open fire and back boiler) in the dining room - I'd want to remove this right up inside the loft, to free up space in the dining room and bedroom above - from what I've read on here and the web I thing it would be RSJs in the loft spanning between supporting walls rather than just gallows brackets - anyone got any ideas what it would cost to do this?
Last point is that the gas meter has been removed and capped off - any ideas for costs on re-instating the gas supply?
Cheers for any replies,
Fatboy
Being terraced , the most important thing to check before you consider doing anything with the stacks is whether or not it is linked with next doors , and if so what has been done to theirs over the years .
Very unlikely that your stack will be stand alone.
4k for the wall and rebuild ?
Very unlikely that your stack will be stand alone.
4k for the wall and rebuild ?
Sorry for the delay - cheers for the reply - what does it mean shared stack?
I know that next door would have shared the stack on the outside of the roof when the houses were built, but do you mean that the flues might be joined together inside the house?
I know that a nearly identical house in a neighbouring street had the chimney brest removed without issue, as I was renting it for a while...
Who should I get to check it out - not being able to remove the chimney would be a deal breaker for me, so I'd want to make sure I could before I bought the place - would it be a Structural Engineer or a Surveyor? (I was thinking I'd need a Structural Engineer before getting the wall knocked down to calculate the loads etc, but was thinking that would wait until after purchase)?
Cheers,
Fatboy
I know that next door would have shared the stack on the outside of the roof when the houses were built, but do you mean that the flues might be joined together inside the house?
I know that a nearly identical house in a neighbouring street had the chimney brest removed without issue, as I was renting it for a while...
Who should I get to check it out - not being able to remove the chimney would be a deal breaker for me, so I'd want to make sure I could before I bought the place - would it be a Structural Engineer or a Surveyor? (I was thinking I'd need a Structural Engineer before getting the wall knocked down to calculate the loads etc, but was thinking that would wait until after purchase)?
Cheers,
Fatboy
Edited by Fatboy on Thursday 25th February 12:45
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