Urgent advice required!

[lesleyanne]

We have just put in an offer on an ex local authority house...and found out yesterday that it is a rennovated AIREY house built post war. We need to remove an internal load bearing wall...and are wondering how to go about it! Any ideas welcome!
Thanks

[Rich]

Answer me a few questions...
1. How long is the wall being removed?
2. 2nd floor above or roof?
3. Height of ceiling?

Answer those and I may be able to suggest a solution. Although I still would suggest consulting an engineer.

[lesleyanne]

Thanks for a quick response. As we do not yet own the house it is very difficult to take builders or structural engineers around! I just wondered if anyone has first-hand knowlege of this type of construction. The engineers we have spoken to have all said that most loadbearing walls can be removed if suppoted correctly...but it might cost alot!

To answer your questions: It is a ground floor internal wall with only one floor above it...but we'd possibly like to extend into the roof at a later date. The wall runs the length of the house and is about 9 metres long. We would like to remove a 4 metre section leaving a metre and a half in the middle and another 2 metre chunk futher down!

What I would like to know is how does one do this with this knid of wall that apparently has pillars at intervals and is then clad with PRC...

I can't find any info on the actual construction technique so would be grateful if you could shed some light on this for me!

Height of ceiling...not extraordinary( have not measured!)

Many thanks again!
Lesley-Anne

[Rich]

First off you need to support the floor above while removing the portions of the wall. Then you will frame up a header to span the distance with 2x12's (this is why I was wondering what the height of the ceiling was) or a paralam beam. Supporting the beam/header will be a single king stud and double trimmer.
Hope that helps.