[ab1385]

I'm not sure where is the right place to ask this tbh, so I thought I'd ask here! We're moving house in about 4 weeks to our first home that we'll have owned, and just costing up a few possible renovation options.

The measurements in this sketchup are all wrong, but the basic layout is correct, just to get the idea.

The layout of the downstairs as we're buying it is like this (excluding a few other rooms I couldn't be bothered to add in to Sketchup!):

First thing we'd quite like to do is to knock through a structural wall between the kitchen and dining area, allowing our whole living area to be much more open plan. We'd then build a smaller wall part of the way across a bit further in, to allow a bigger kitchen area.

As I said, the dimensions are wrong, I just don't have them to hand, the kitchen isn't quite that long and thin. Anyway, the next thing we want is to have space for our L-shape sofa, which doesn't fit where the living space doorway currently is, so we'd have to block it up, make good, and then knock through another one further down the wall.

Basically, like this:

Once that's done we could put in some furniture. This is the current planned layout. Opposite the sofa on the long wall will be a fireplace. An electric PJ screen will come down in front of the window (with blackout curtains/blind on the window), and the the 5.1 (?/7.1 - as yet undecided) to fit around the PJ screen. TV maybe above the fireplace, maybe alongside between fireplace and PJ screen, maybe in front of window and behind electric screen - again undecided at the moment. Eventual basic layout will be something like this:

Again, sorry for the very poor sketchup skills, but does anyone have any idea how much we're looking at for that sort of building work? The kitchen wall is, unfortunately, structural, so would need to be heavily supported, but preferably with the minimum of intrusion into the room.

When I actually get round to doing this properly I'll start a new thread on here with the progress. By that time we'll have more of a proper plan and I'll have learnt to use sketchup properly, but ideas of cost are, unfortunately, always the starting point!

Thanks guys!

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

From watching the 'home show' on channel 4 i would expect a couple of grand for the structural wall as RSJ's seem to cost a fortune. But i could by way off there lol. Moving the door (i am assuming its internal) is not a big job.

[barney007]

hey matey

i just had a structual wall removed between my kitchen and dining room.

right the walls was roughly 10ft long about 8ft high what we had taken out.. the rsg was steel as you know and it was oversized well with in requiremtnts, we used 8 acros etc...

with everything rsg was £150 on its own, 1 skip for brick only £80, acros was about |£8 each for weeks hire... if your walls similar size to mine i reckon about 800 - 1200 finished

[ab1385]

Is that £800-£1200 completely done by a professional you think? I've just read wildly varying things on the old "google-a-thon"!

[Smurfin]

No-one can tell you what it will cost except a builder. £800-£1200? Might as well call it 5 grand, because it could be anything in between. It's IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to give a meaningful answer as every project is different.

We're just going through the same as you, although we're a little way ahead...we completed 5 weeks ago tomorrow (well today as it's gone midnight ), and we're 3 weeks into the works. All I can say is, whatever you plan to do, build in a big contingency. I had £4000 set aside for unknowns and unplanned things, and it's all but gone (speakers/fridge freezer etc didn't help, but I underbudgeted in a number of areas as well )....

[ab1385]

LOL, fair enough. I don't know if you had the same thing - but we just want to sort everything out NOW! But obviously we can't until we know how much each potential project is going to cost, so I'm just trying to get an idea.

We bought a bit of a doer-upper - we need a new kitchen, bathroom, new carpets throughout and new coat of paint/wallpaper, complete electrical rewire and new central heating system! Thankfully nothing structural needs doing, but there's a few bits and bobs we'd like to do if possible.

[Flipper]

Over the last few years I have had a doorway knocked through an internal wall, a load bearing internal wall removed and a new doorway put into an external wall.

All of these required Building Reg's with supporting calculations from a structural engineer. For me it cost approx £380 per engineer visit and another £100+ for the building regs. That's before the work even started

[Smurfin]

Originally Posted by ab1385

LOL, fair enough. I don't know if you had the same thing - but we just want to sort everything out NOW!

Absolutely! Trouble is, you WILL change your mind about some things, and what I've found tough is making all the decisions that need making NOW.

We bought a bit of a doer-upper - we need a new kitchen, bathroom, new carpets throughout and new coat of paint/wallpaper, complete electrical rewire and new central heating system! Thankfully nothing structural needs doing, but there's a few bits and bobs we'd like to do if possible.

Same here! My thread is running here if you're interested

[barney007]

Originally Posted by ab1385

Is that £800-£1200 completely done by a professional you think? I've just read wildly varying things on the old "google-a-thon"!

hi matey

yeah that was done n dusted.. by a proper registered building company. reason why i put 800 - 1200 was simply because of taste etc, if you need extra cables, or little more plaster... but that wassimply for removal off wall, steel beam, boarded n plastered ready for paint

[Axl]

Originally Posted by ab1385

Is that £800-£1200 completely done by a professional you think? I've just read wildly varying things on the old "google-a-thon"!

No one can give an accurate quote without visiting the site and knowing exact spec. If you know exactly what you want doing get as many quotes as possible.

Saying that, if it helps I made a 9 ft gap in a load bearing wall between my lounge and dining room for;

Building regs £105
RSJ £120
Circular saw hire £20
Strongboy/acro hire £30
Plasterer £200
Slate dry packing - free
Padstones - free
Paint approx £25

Once that was done the only extra cost was to have a new carpet fitted and I did everything myself except for the plastering. The quotes for the plastering were £200, £680 lol and £300.

I disposed of all waste myself so no costs incurred there.

Hope that helps.