Removing ground floor stud wall

[bertiebb]

Hi

I am looking to take part of a stud wall down in my house and could do with a bit of advice from you lovely people. I’ll try and make the explanation as simple as I can! Here goes….

PIC1 shows the wall and it’s the area within the red section marked “A” that I want to remove. (I will also be removing the door to the right at the bottom of the stairs and the small bit of stud wall above the door, but I have no issues with this.)

Wall “B” is made of block and is load bearing.

“C” is a continuation of wall “A” but on the 1st floor

PIC2 shows wall “A” from the other side.

There is a 190mm x 70mm wooden joist (marked as “1” on PIC3) that runs between “A” and “C”. This joist spans 2.75m and is secured at each end by a metal shoe to another 190mm x 70mm joist that is at a right angle to it (marked as “2” on PIC3).

Joist “2” (and the joist at the other end of joist “1”) go from the outside wall and finish on top of load bearing wall “B”. There are several short joists that run from the outside wall and are secured to joist “1” with metal shoes along its length (these form the bathroom floor)

“C” is also a stud wall but does have tiles on the opposite side (as this is a bathroom wall). Above this wall is the loft and there is nothing bearing down directly on top of this wall inside the loft.

I want to remove approx 1.75m of stud wall “A” (which is below joist “1”), leaving approx 1m of studwork in place below joist “1”.

My question is; are there any structural issues with removing this part of wall “A”? i.e would joist “1” be strong enough to hold up “C” if 1.75m of wall “A” is removed?

Hope this makes sense????

Cheers

Matt

 

[endecotp]

Are there fire safety issues here? I.e. is the new open layout going to allow smoke from a kitchen fire to fill the staircase i.e. the ewcape route from upstairs bedrooms?

 

[bertiebb]

Hi endecotp, thanks for your reply.

No there won't be any issues regards fire safety as I will be building a new doorway into the kitchen just past the part of the stair wall that I want to remove. The floor plans attached show the CURRENT layout with the wall and door I want to remove lined in red, and the NEW layout showing the new doorway entry into the kitchen in red. This merely gives a bigger hallway but keeps the same separations between rooms and fire escapes as previously.

I have already spoken to Building Control and they are happy with this. I just need to know whether removing part of this wall is going to cause and structural problems with the wall/floor above.