Welcome to my Roof! (Wall Removal)

Hi fellas -

My Kalamunda, Perth '72-vintage house has a tiny living room and an equally tiny L-shaped kitchen because the house has a feature wall that partially splits the room in two.

I'd like to have the kitchen moved into our existing single carport (which is under the main roof) in the future, which would then allow me to use the present kitchen space to add to the living room... making it that much more useable.

But the feature wall has to go!

How the feature wall looks inside the house - note the position of the pot-belly. Its a single brick wall, L-shaped, with some of the kitchen cupboards mounted on the back (kitchen side):

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...MG_4244_Sm.jpg

How the roof looks above the feature wall:

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...MG_4247_Sm.jpg

To me it appears that there are two roof supports attached to the wall - one just behind the pot belly chimney, and another three feet or so to the left as well. The roof is concrete tile over jarrah - the rest of the house also double brick/tile on concrete pad.

There's also a cross beam that presumably supports the ceiling joists (runs from pic foreground back towards the roof supports). Another cross beam (directly to the right of the pot belly chimney) runs from the right end of the feature wall above the kitchen benchtop, also supporting ceiling)

A bit like this: excuse the text diagram!
__
| |
| |______________
|___X_C____X____|CCCCCCCCC
..........C.......O
..........C
..........C
..........C

ignore the dots

||______
|_______| - feature wall to be removed
O - pot belly chimney
X - roof supports
C's - cross beams supporting ceiling plaster

Just trying to get an idea of the process involved -

Is getting this fixed a major issue? I presume this classifies as a 'load-bearing' wall?

Am I looking at a few hundred, or a few thousand?

Get builder in first? Council engineer needs to approve a plan etc?

HI RR, Geez u've got a lot of dust up there! I think you are looking at a few K to take that beautiful piece of brickwork out. It is Load bearing so one or maybe two heavy girders/bearers will have to be installed.

I would first ask a few builders to come and look at it - from their assessments you should know whether you need permits or an engineers plan.

Becuase your walls are double brick they may decide to put the new bearers in your ceiling space. This willl require some tiles to come off and maybe a crane hire to swing the new bearer up there. Once installed and locked off they - or you - can demolish the spectacular and beautiful wall at your leisure.

Alternatively they may suggest trying to put the bearer under the ceiling.

I would try and opt for putting the bearer in the ceiling as this would leave your loungeroom relatively untrashed.

Hi DD - although there is a fair bit of dust up there, the vast majority of that brown powder is blow-in insulation. This being my first house and all... I think I prefer batts already!

I haven't got into the rood proper yet... just got up on a ladder to take those photos... it was 56 degrees in the roof and 28 in the house (38 outside) so the insuation wasn't doing too badly. I think a couple of vents and whirlybirds would help though!

Geez those bricks in your feature wall are mesmerizing LOL - after a few drinks or other substances one could contemplate it for hours ROFL - Is the rest of the house done in the same brick?

Hahaha no its only that wall, although the fireplace in our front lounge has similar bricks, but without the big chunky bits sticking out.

The outside of the house is finished in reddish brown textured bricks.

Its a bit hard to see in that photo, but the bricks are very irregular - some are pretty much only half a brick, while others are more like a square paver thats had one face partly broken off.

Its more the wall placement, rather than the actual look of the wall itself... the living room is just tiny and narrow... as is the kitchen.

The kitchen, while having an outside wall, faces into the single carport. The carport is under the main roof, so its just begging to be used as part of the main house.

If I can open the kitchen wall up and move the kitchen into the carport, I'll have a much larger living area, be able to let more light in, and hopefully run the new ceiling up to the rafters cathedral style (if I do use the carport, the ceiling in there will need to be redone anyway).

Its a doable dream, not out of reach, but it will take some doing and a fair bit of saving! I can't really knock the kitchen out and not do the carport conversion.

So I need a builder to come and look at it, quote me on the price for re-jigging the roof above the feature wall, and probably putting a new beam in across the kitchen windows so I can knock that wall out and open the whole space up.

My wallet is having conniptions though!