Building regs for Moving internal door from one solid wall to another

[sppc42]

Hi,

Our kitchen being in the front of the house, has its door facing the entrance hallway. Whilst deciding to upgrade the kitchen, we thought of moving the door to the adjacent wall which will then link it to the living room.

I have had several builders come and all said it's easy to move by placing a concrete lintel at a pretty reasonable price. However, one pointed that I might need both a structural engineer and Building regulation approval certificate, esp in case I need to sell my house later and for safety purpose also.

I get his point around safety and am attaching a pic of the wall where the new door will come out (pic taken from the living room when the roof was being redone couple of years ago). It shows a RSJ supporting the joists and thus the wall does not appears to be load bearing to me, esp with no or partition wall directly above it. All the builders agreed to it.

My question is :

1. Do I need to get a structural engineer to assess it?
2. Will the building regs be needed or if not used, can it cause problems in selling the property later?

Seems like a simple looking task is ballooning up into too much work and ofcourse much increased costs.

Thanks

 

[sircerebus666]

So the door is coming out of a non load bearing wall and being moved to a load bearing wall hence the need for a lintel?

Any decent builder should be able to calculate the size of the lintel needed for a single door without a structural engineer getting involved

Building regs will come into play for the size of the lintel and the pad it sits on , again any decent builder knows all this

I worry that one builder who used the word "safely" did it to instill panic in you , so he could charge you more for the same job

 

[sppc42]

Your reply is apt and very timely. I had contacted a reputed firm here which do Structural Engg surveys and consulting. They called me up and after going through the specifics that this job is simple, as door width is normal and thus, does not requires any structural engg survey, any 'decent' builder can do the job of putting in the right concrete lintel.

Thanks!

 

[frutbunn]

Your reply is apt and very timely. I had contacted a reputed firm here which do Structural Engg surveys and consulting. They called me up and after going through the specifics that this job is simple, as door width is normal and thus, does not requires any structural engg survey, any 'decent' builder can do the job of putting in the right concrete lintel.

Thanks!

I'm a building control surveyor, never never heard of a SE on such a small job.

 

[Notch7]

I'm a building control surveyor, never never heard of a SE on such a small job.

A building control surveyor on a DIY forum -you could be spying