Steel Joist Installation Costs

[Simon Ray]

Dear All,

I hope there's not an identical query already, but if there is I couldn't find it i'm afraid..

My friend is a structural engineer and has for a very reasonable fee offered to calculate/draw up my loft conversation for me on my East London 2up 2down cottage....

The conversion is dead simple as far as lofts go, no dormers etc and just a couple of velux windows planned.....so essentially a loft room with plasterboarded walls and natural light coming in.

The reason for the steels is a long story, but i'm assured they are needed - My question however, is with regards some honest opinions of labour costs for installation only of the 3x steels themselves and then tie-ing in the existing joists to them.

I'm hoping to do all but the structural works myself (stairs, plasterboard, velux's etc) and have costs for the steels and timbers etc required, so it really is just a vaguely reliable labour cost that i'm trying to nail down before going ahead with the project. I've had wildly varied quotes so far, so hard to trust the numbers.

If anyone is a builder or has a good idea of whats in involved, it would be really great to get some figures please.

Works include -
1. Fitting 2 x 4.2m steels across from neighbour to neighbours walls.
2. Tieing in the existing and fitting some new joists from front to back.
3. Fitting a third steel (the more complicated bit) to run between the two main steels purely to take the weight of the chimney stacks poking out the top of the house - plan being this will then allow us to remove the chimney breasts below the loft freeing up lots of space in the house)

Any ideas of reasonable £££ are very welcome

Many thanks

Simon

 

[HERTS P&D]

About the same price as a second hand car.

Hope that helps.

Andy

 

[EFLImpudence]

First thought:

Why are you not removing all of the chimney?

 

[Simon Ray]

I thought as much Andy.....thx

Thanks for for the reply EFL, idea being simpler to put in a 3rd steel instead of disturbing the roof...

But, now you say it, maybe cheaper/simpler to remove the whole lot.

It may have been potential party wall issues that led us to keeping the chimney tops, your thoughts are welcome

S

 

[Notch7]

I thought as much Andy.....thx

Thanks for for the reply EFL, idea being simpler to put in a 3rd steel instead of disturbing the roof...

But, now you say it, maybe cheaper/simpler to remove the whole lot.

It may have been potential party wall issues that led us to keeping the chimney tops, your thoughts are welcome

S

Very difficult to put a price on it, Andys response maybe a bit tongue in cheek but he is correct.

I know from previous jobs, a big opening into a ground floor extension along with a few other minor steels, is around the £4k incl materials

Lofts have access probs, some are almost impossible to get steels into place.

And you are asking builders to do the horrible bit in isolation, the bit thats hard to put a timescale on. Expect prices to include a big contingency built in.

 

[Simon Ray]

Thanks, its good to hear that from a non-bias viewpoint

cheers

 

[EFLImpudence]

idea being simpler to put in a 3rd steel instead of disturbing the roof...
But, now you say it, maybe cheaper/simpler to remove the whole lot.

If you do that, will you need any steel?

It may have been potential party wall issues that led us to keeping the chimney tops, your thoughts are welcome

I wouldn't think party wall issues are any different in the loft than below.