Supporting Beam?

[LouiseH]

Hello, complete DIY newbie here!

My husband and I have just purchased a house that needs a lot of work done. He is great at DIY, I am not so I will be asking lots of questions!

The house is very quirky with, what appears to be, some very strange design decisions! It's around 100 years old and was not listed on Land Registry so we know very little about the house. The lady who was here before lived here for around 40 years.

As you can see from the picture, our kitchen has a door leading to a small room, which we are using as a utility. We have removed the front door to the house/kitchen which led to a small porch. The small room had another door leading to the porch too.

What we would like to do is brick up the doorway with the black surround and make the doorway with the dirty white surround bigger as it isn't a standard size.

Please excuse the mess!

How do we check if the wall is load-bearing - does it matter?

TIA
Louise

 

[LouiseH]

Sorry about the photo being so big. Is there a way to resize it?

 

[The Samaritan]

Hi L

There are ways to tell is a wall is loadbearing or not but to be a 100% certain
you will require the services of an appropriate professional.


Good luck.

.

 

[securespark]

I wanted to take out a kitchen wall: looking under the floor above, you could see that the brick wall ended just above the plasterboard ceiling and it was parallel with a joist.

I was sure it would be OK, but asked a structural engineer to double check it for me. It only cost a couple of hundred and his advice was to take out the vast majority of the wall but leave around 300mm where it joined the back wall of the house. I'm glad I asked his advice.

 

[The Samaritan]

I wanted to take out a kitchen wall: looking under the floor above, you could see that the brick wall ended just above the plasterboard ceiling and it was parallel with a joist.

I was sure it would be OK, but asked a structural engineer to double check it for me. It only cost a couple of hundred and his advice was to take out the vast majority of the wall but leave around 300mm where it joined the back wall of the house. I'm glad I asked his advice.

Years ago we got a free, no obligation visit and the gut said the bit of wall was load bearing. We decided not to proceed, so cost us nothing.

best to get it checked as I said and you did.

 

[Dereekoo]

Its not a black art a bit of common sense should be able to tell you if its load bearing, put up a photo and there are people on here who will be able to give you guidance.

 

[crystal ball]

I would get professional advice, not a guess from someone on a forum however well meaning

 

[Dereekoo]

I would get professional advice, not a guess from someone on a forum however well meaning

Guess I got that wrong then Derekoo B.Sc., CEng., MICE.
And even without the picture at a guess filling in the black, with stud or brickwork, will not affect any structural integrity of that area, and depending how much you want to make the white entrance bigger the size of the existing lintel may well preclude any any extra support requirement. A 300 return on existing walls are rarely needed to enhance the stability of an external wall probably more for something to rest a lintel on if so required but if it justifies a couple of hundred quid in professional charges so be it

 

[crystal ball]

As I said, a guess from someone on a forum for the sake of £200

 

[securespark]

I think some are mixing up my comments with the OPs request ...?

 

[noseall]

How do we check if the wall is load-bearing - does it matter?

Not especially no. Just treat it as load bearing anyway. The doorway you are bricking up (or stud partition) should have adequate lintelling above. The bigger doorway - depending on size - will also require an adequate lintel.

 

[Catman Chris]

I did the same thing last year, took out the wall between the kitchen and dining room. A structural engineer cost £450 and the local authority buildings dept certificate and inspections cost another £250. Both were well worth it but I did the rest myself. I got the beam to the SE's spec from a local steel supplier and hired ACROW's for a week. The rest was just simple DIY.

 

[noseall]

Can anyone see the pictures?

 

[Notch7]

Can anyone see the pictures?

Not me, PC or ipad

 

[JohnD]

Can anyone see the pictures?

No.