Removing & adding walls

[michaelg]

Hi,

I have a house where I'm considering removing a couple of walls and creating some new ones in a double brick home.

I'm interested to hear people's experiences with such a venture, things like...

- unexpected issues that cropped up, and how you dealt with them.

- the costs associated with it

- the approvals you required (council?)

- things you discovered

- things you would do differently next time - what they are and how

Regards
Michael Gruber

 

[craigb]

double brick walls hold up your floor joist and bearers and you cut style roof, they are very load bearing and the expence is large, and a messy job, not saying don't proceed just preparing you.

 

[RumpledElf]

Did this last year through stone.

- unexpected issues that cropped up, and how you dealt with them.

With the new wall - my ceilings aren't level, so we had to do some creative trimming of gyprock at the top and every vertical stud had to be individually measured.

With removing the old wall, there was no foundation underneath it so we had to lay some cement. And the plaster fell off one side of the old wall and had to be redone.

- the costs associated with it

$4000ish including quite a bit of scaffolding hire until I found a scaffold on ebay and bought it. Edit to add - time wise it took close to 6 months of on-off work.

- the approvals you required (council?)

Haven't got council approval for anything on this house (noone does in this area and I've done several things that anywhere else I'd be lodging a DA, but not here). The part of the wall we removed wasn't loadbearing - there's a big beam in the roof immediately above it but there is a 2 inch gap between beam and wall.

- things you discovered

We discovered a doorway already through the wall while we were cutting the new doorways. Totally in the wrong place of course, but it made it very easy to cut a straight edge through that side as the inside edge of the door was about where the outside edge of our hole needed to be Also discovered that lime plaster dust clogs the uncloggable Dyson very fast.

- things you would do differently next time - what they are and how

Would have bought the scaffold earlier! Otherwise, it was very successful - end result looks absolutely wonderful, totally changes the feel of the house, having the extra bedroom is fantastic. New room has no window but the budget didn't stretch to that ...

 

[craigb]

rumpled elf i have picked up lots of 2nd hand windows at the re-cycling area at the tip, and you make it up from there, cost about $20

 

[RumpledElf]

No, more like $2000-5000. $20 for the window, then you need an engineered lintel, hire of props to hold the wall up while cutting, wood to do a frame around the window, labour since this is not a DIY project, plaster to make good around the inevitable huge mess cutting a window will make, big-*** concrete saw hire, cut wall will need repainting and so will window frame, mortar for making good the huge mess on the outside, bricks for a window frame outside etc etc etc.

I don't have that kind of money spare, so the room will remain windowless until I do. I'm in a high-crime area and it is the baby's room so it will have to be done by professionals so it is done quickly.

 

[craigb]

how about a sun roof thingy, safe. and you can get the ventilated type.

 

[RumpledElf]

Sif sunroof. It'd be 4 metres up to the ceiling and another couple metres again to the roof! The baby wouldn't be able to open and close the blinds on it