how to discern which walls are load bearing?

[apricotandpearjam]

hi. i buying a flat and we want to do some structural changes and remove some walls to open it up.

im in the process of trying to find a structural engineer.

in the meantime is there any way of finding out which walls are load bearing from the plans?

here are some photos which might help.

thankyou!

[ETC]

Is this a top floor or intermediate floor flat?

However I’d say that you’re flogging a dead horse unless you can find out exactly where the floor slabs or roof supports are located. Another thing you need to consider is the creation of a bedroom accessed from a kitchen and opening everything up - the rooms become inner rooms and will need an alternative means of escape and I suspect the existing corridor is a protected corridor - are the existing doors to the bedrooms and existing living room fire doors?

 

However, Building Control should have the original structural floor plans.

Edited Sunday at 16:54 by ETC

[Conor]

The beam and piers highlighted pink will undoubtedly be holding ceiling joists and any partition walls above.

 

But, anything is possible, with enough money.

[Alan Ambrose]

I think those plans you posted are estate agent’s plans no? Take them as ‘artist’s impressions’ rather than anything serious. Call in a good quality builder or an engineer? You can do the tapping thing with your knuckles or drill a tiny hole. An empty ‘cavity’ and a hollow sound almost certainly mean non- load bearing stud wall. Red or grey brick or block dust might mean either.

 

Ask your neighbours if they know? - a structural support will usually run from the bottom of the whole structure to the top.

 

p.s. you often need the freeholder’s permission to monkey with walls, so you might like to sound them out, and it’s possible they have useful info also.

Edited Sunday at 17:45 by Alan Ambrose

[Gordo]

You will need a structural engineer to work out the load paths, but i would imagine they are indeed load bearing. walls and piers supporting substantial beams and possibly concrete floors. If the walls support fire resistant elements they should also be considered structural. Building control will need to be notified regardless as you are changing the means of escape and possibly fire/sound resistant elements. I would imagine you will have difficulties with regards to the means of escape also under BS9991 for flats due to inner rooms situation. I assume the flat is accessed off a common protected corridor.

 

Quite a few things will need consideration and likely too much for a simple forum question/answer. 

[kandgmitchell]

9 hours ago, Gordo said:

I would imagine you will have difficulties with regards to the means of escape also under BS9991 for flats due to inner rooms situation.

Absolutely - that new bedroom would be cut off from the flat exit by the room with the highest fire risk; the kitchen. The flat was deliberately designed to have it's bedrooms nearer the exit door than the kitchen. I'd also expect that there was a door on the opening from the kitchen onto the inner hallway originally.

 

As to the structural bit, you can just see the arrangement of piers holding up that large ceiling beam. Doing all those changes within a flat is going to be a very big ask. 

[ProDave]

If you really want to add a bedroom, then move the kitchen into the living room, and add a new partition wall to divide what was the kitchen from the now smaller kitchen / diner, with the third bedroom accessed from the hall (reinstating the missing door)

 

Moving the plumbing, particularly waste pipes to do that might be a challenge.

[torre]

From the beams and piers it looks like someone's already had a go at opening up the layout, I think it would be a challenge to achieve the sort of layout you want, and as others said, you need to avoid an inner room - you could have a long corridor all the way to that bedroom but it's a huge waste of space.

 

I'd try and work within the existing layout as much as you can - how about converting the kitchen area into a bedroom and relocating the kitchen along the fireplace wall  or into the area you'd like to place a bedroom? It avoids a lot of structural costs and fire safety headaches as you'd connect to the existing protected corridor

[Gus Potter]

On 26/01/2025 at 15:48, apricotandpearjam said:

hi. i buying a flat and we want to do some structural changes and remove some walls to open it up.

Good to see you being innovative.

 

With my SE hat on when making alterations to flats I always ask to see the flat below not least and if mid floor the ones above. That means gaining approved access.

 

Two main reasons are:

 

1/ I want to get some record photos of the condition and any cracks. This helps protects you not least.

 

2/ I want to check if any in unrecorded (illegal) alterations have been made that the council etc may hold not record of. This happens a lot!

 

In summary you need to know what has been going on down below and in cases flats above if a mid floor flat.

 

To explain a bit.. often "non" load bearing walls can be taken out on the floors below and your higher up flat may be serving to provide sideways and wind restraint restraint to the external walls say. If you remove another floor's worth of sideways / wind restraint that can be very dangerous.

 

My advice is don't buy a flat hoping you'll make money by knocking out walls. If you really want to do it then you should stump up the cash for an SE BEFORE you buy.