Jude3003

Hello We have just completed our extension where we have moved our existing kitchen into the extended part of the house. The original plan was to make our existing galley kitchen into 2 small rooms, utility and shower room (shower, toilet and sink). We have decided to not have the shower so considered keeping the room as 1 and having the utility and toilet/sink altogether. As this room will be directly attached to the kitchen (although toilet on the opposite side of the 4m long room) would this satisfy BR? It's not ideal but also dont want the expense and feeling as though we have 2 tiny rooms if we don't need to. Thanks in advance for any advise.

Hi. We have now completed our extension and have moved on to the existing 1930s build house. We have knocked out the wall between living and dining room (No rsj required as it's not carrying joists) but as you can see from the pictures we are unsure what to do with the 2 beautiful arches we are left with. In a perfect world we could knock the centre out and have 1 big arch as a feature but we are unsure weather the wall between carries the chimney in the room above the left arch (no chimney in room above right arch). Has anyone seen this before? After completing the extension funds are low and another structural engineer and RSJs are out of the question.

Thank you Bassanclan, that's exactly what we were told by the builder - you have put my mind at rest -thank you

house 1 shows the internal wall from the internal side of the existing house (up the stairs) house 2 shows the wall knocked down in the extension bedroom 1 house 3 shows the wall knocked down in the extension bedroom 2 I'm unsure if you can see from the photos but the skim that has been knocked out is being left erected in the corners for support of the new external walls so the corners of the room will be built out rather than in. Does that make sense?

Hello, We are currently undergoing a 2 storey house extension, its completely built and we are at first fix stage for gas and electric. When having our steels erected we asked the builder about removing the existing external skim of brickwork from the first floor only to make the rooms bigger - in which his reply was - "its not weight bearing so would be fine". So we have done this with no problems as the joists were all sitting on the internal skim of wall which is still standing. We never thought to contact the building inspector about this (in hindsight we should have first) now our plasterer has been out to quote today and basically said that it should have really gone through the building inspector and he could make us re build it. In short my question is - has anyone done this? What was the outcome? Are there any inspectors viewing this that could pass any advice ASAP? The earliest our inspector can come is Monday and I'm having a panic thinking that its going to need rebuilding and stud walls and doorways will all need moving. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Thank you, we are aware that a small amount of the drive will need to come up, in order to set it up. Just one of the holes will need to be put in through the drive, the other will be at that back of the property near the kitchen. We have had the first quote in at £1250 so that seems very reasonable, maybe our area may also be why its considerably lower. Thank you for your time to reply.

Hello, Due to having a burst lead water main, we have decided to get a new plastic water main laid and are looking at impact moling technique (as not to completely destroy our new block paved driveway). We need the new pipe to run from the main water supply outside of the house and into our kitchen (approximate distance around 17 metres). Can anyone please give APPROX prices on what I should expect to pay? I don't want to pay over the odds but at the same time have no idea "whats about right". I'm in Stoke on Trent.

No, directly above it is floor only then about a metre away there is a stud wall, but the SE has calculated for a steel? This is why I'm confused - I would hope the SE knows what he was talking about but I'm beginning to think otherwise.

Thank you Ian that does make sense now. Do you have any advice as to whether we need to have steel put in the wall which runs the same way as the joists and not load bearing? Again SE says yes but builder is adamant no.

Hello. We are currently self managing our 2 storey house extension (1930s semi). We have had calculations done for the steel by a structural engineer but the builder thinks that the calculations are wrong. To me they are a bunch of numbers and I really don't have a clue what it means. Basically we are knocking down 2 internal walls. 1 is in the same direction of the joists and has no wall directly above it. 1 is load bearing. Then we have the external wall where the SE has said we only need 1 steel beam butting in even though it's a double skim wall. Both architect and builder say we need 2 on this wall. I feel as though we've paid £250 for SE and he's a bit offended that we've questioned it but I don't know who to trust? Any advice welcome please.