Hello all,
We have plans to remove a few 'walls' and want to see what people think with regards to load-bearing etc...
All walls are part of the original house which was built in the late 50's / early 60's. All walls are solid (brick I believe).
Floorplan:
I've removed a few extra bits of the house that are not relevant. The square of the entrance hall, kitchen and sitting room is the original house. All other bits are extensions from the late 80's / early 90's. There is a large boxed in beam that runs the width of the house from the middle of the sitting room, through to the middle of kitchen (horizontally when looking at the floorplan) - that seems to support the wall that separates the two larger bedrooms to above the sitting room as it runs directly under that but for the whole width of the house.
Wall 1 - downstairs archway
This is an archway between the entrance area and kitchen, although the floorplan seems to suggest there is a wall directly above it (for the smallest bedroom) there is actually around 8-10cm between the downstairs one ending and the upstairs one starting (upstairs one is closer to the bottom exterior wall, making the room smaller than the entrance hall). The walls do not go between the floorboards on the 1st floor and the joists run from vertically when looking at the floor plan.
Wall 2 - upstairs toilet / bathroom
No picture, these 2 small walls are solid and we'd like to knock through to make a bigger bathroom. There are no walls below (as this is the kitchen) and the walls don't seem to go below the floorboards. Above is the loft with water tank which has its own extra built up bit so the load is spread across multiple beams. They are obviously very close to the original external wall (which will be load-bearing).
Any thoughts? My initial gut reaction is Wall 1 might be doing something, although it's odd that it doesn't support the wall above it as they don't sit on each other. With Walls 2 I can't see them doing anything as they are in the corner of the house, right by the external walls and there is nothing below them.
I spoke to a builder who was round at the time doing something else who did the same checks I did (look to see what's near them, work out the direction of joists and said he reckoned wall 1 would be load-bearing and 2 not but wasn't able to say with any confidence.
We have plans to remove a few 'walls' and want to see what people think with regards to load-bearing etc...
All walls are part of the original house which was built in the late 50's / early 60's. All walls are solid (brick I believe).
Floorplan:
I've removed a few extra bits of the house that are not relevant. The square of the entrance hall, kitchen and sitting room is the original house. All other bits are extensions from the late 80's / early 90's. There is a large boxed in beam that runs the width of the house from the middle of the sitting room, through to the middle of kitchen (horizontally when looking at the floorplan) - that seems to support the wall that separates the two larger bedrooms to above the sitting room as it runs directly under that but for the whole width of the house.
Wall 1 - downstairs archway
This is an archway between the entrance area and kitchen, although the floorplan seems to suggest there is a wall directly above it (for the smallest bedroom) there is actually around 8-10cm between the downstairs one ending and the upstairs one starting (upstairs one is closer to the bottom exterior wall, making the room smaller than the entrance hall). The walls do not go between the floorboards on the 1st floor and the joists run from vertically when looking at the floor plan.
Wall 2 - upstairs toilet / bathroom
No picture, these 2 small walls are solid and we'd like to knock through to make a bigger bathroom. There are no walls below (as this is the kitchen) and the walls don't seem to go below the floorboards. Above is the loft with water tank which has its own extra built up bit so the load is spread across multiple beams. They are obviously very close to the original external wall (which will be load-bearing).
Any thoughts? My initial gut reaction is Wall 1 might be doing something, although it's odd that it doesn't support the wall above it as they don't sit on each other. With Walls 2 I can't see them doing anything as they are in the corner of the house, right by the external walls and there is nothing below them.
I spoke to a builder who was round at the time doing something else who did the same checks I did (look to see what's near them, work out the direction of joists and said he reckoned wall 1 would be load-bearing and 2 not but wasn't able to say with any confidence.
