Hi there,

Im doing renovation (more than 40 years old house) recently. Basically what im doing is to combine two room into one big living area.

1. BACK ROOM : i have attached the picture of the back room.


DSCF0060 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Flickr: Lplatereno's Photostream

The problems are, some of the stud wall are "load bearing"which support the roof. A 4m supporting beam is required to be inserted into the existing structure before walls can be remove.

A builder recommended 4m LVL timber. Is LVL is better or equavalent to Steel beam?

2. SIDE ROOM :

load on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I need to removed the walls on the side too. But the problem is, at the corner of the wardrobe, there is this supporting beam which supporting the roof. What is the best method to fix this problems? Can i just extend that beam and then remove the wall or is there any alternative ways to do it? Do i required any additional strucural beam after i extended corner beam? (hopefully i make sense here)


In addition, a non license builder quoted me a very cheap price, 50% cheaper than the license builder. He wont provide any warranty but will provide engineer certificate. Does that warrant anything? Normally the price of a non license is cheaper by maybe 20% - 30%, Im surprise there are such significant different. Does that mean the license contractor over quoted me?


since this job is less than 10K, does that mean i do no required a contract from the builder/contractor? If anything happened, can i still report the license builder even we do not have writen contract? Do official quotation vaild as contract?

I hope someone out there could enligthen me.

Many thanks


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