To wall, or to knock the wall? That is the question
Alan Houang
last year
last modified: last year
Keep the wall
Remove this wall
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bigreader
last yearAlan Houang
last yearRelated Discussions
Reno v Knock-down rebuild
Comments (41)We have a similar home in a sydney beach suburb. We are in a different position where we have bought ours as a downsized but are just about to restore the old 50s beauty to its former self. We have quotes of around $400000 to gut and change the floor plan which includes 2 bathrooms and a new kitchen and also add internal stairs to the garage and a large deck off the back, lift some ceilings and replace gutters, eaves ect ect ect. Attached are my inspiration boards and what the house looks like now, hopefully in about 4 months I can update you....See MoreAnyone planning to knock down a wall?
Comments (20)We have already removed a wall. And although this advice isn’t about floors or ceilings, it’s still important. We strongly recommend obtaining advice from a professional engineer, or demanding evidence that your builder has (and insist it’s free of caveats like, “based on information provided by others”). Our builder removed a load bearing wall. He was supposed to get an engineer’s assessment. The cheapsake, cowboy, con artist didn’t do that. He deceived. He had a rough guess at the size of the beam. And he got it wrong. We asked for a copy of the engineer’s assessment. The builder lied about having one. Then finally admitted he guessed. He engaged an engineer. The assessment had caveats. We insisted it be caveat free. The engineers then had to inspect his work. They found the cowboy had lied to them too - and given false info about what was put in. His beam was under-dimensioned and not even braced to the house. The engineers gave the builder simple instructions to rectify his muck up. Three beams later, the idiot got it right. And the engineers could then approve the work. But remember, on paper they had already declared the under dimensioned beam was ok (but with a caveat). Moral of the story - insist on a site inspection by the engineer. Or, just like our roof could have, your roof might cave in! And probably not on top of the idiot builder who would deserve to be buried under it! Btw - hello John Z. Ears burning by any chance? There’s some good people around but it’s hard for a lay person to tell who’s who, so do what you can to protect yourself from cowboys, is our message....See MoreShould we knock down the wall in our lounge room?
Comments (24)Hi Mad S - I like many of the ideas above! There will be in fact many things you could do to introduce a more open plan feel to the kitchen/living/dining, and so I would invest in some architectural or interior design advice to provide a masterplan for you so you can stage improvements as you can afford them. For example, it's always ideal to know where north is when making changes, and changes to open up the kitchen and introduce an island bench will vastly improve the feel of the open space, however you may want to add a walk-in pantry given you have the floor space available (only if you want one though). The gas fire would be in the wrong spot when opening up the space, however there is no reason to throw it away - you could move it to a centrally along the same line, or even along the main external living wall. I would keep that small portion of wall parallel to the front door (or extend it slightly/ replace with screen or joinery) to provide the discreet screening you need for a front door, and I would also move the rumpus door down this end so that you have a closed corner to the 'dining' space - so people don't have to walk through all the time and freeing up your options for furniture arrangements. You could even at a later stage aim to upgrade the doors along the living room external wall to the outdoor entertaining area for better indoor-outdoor connection, especially if this was north and you move the fireplace to be in front of full-height glazing. Good Luck!...See MoreKnock down - rebuild question
Comments (5)if you definitely know that the house is beyond saving why wait? starting now would allow for the demolition to be planned in a more organised way so that you can potentially salvage anything that might useful either in the new house or for recycling eg any windows, doors, water heaters etc that could be offered for sale or bricks that could be reused on site for feature walls or garden paving... on our last big reno we made several hundred dollars from salvaged electrical wiring, thousands from the sale of building materials and saved thousand in labour by cleaning some of the site ourselves and taking rubbish to the tip...not a fun job but cheaper than joining an exercise class ...luckily there was an old shed on site that we kept for builders' storage and we salvaged plants, had trees and shrubs trimmed and fences repaired before major new work began and all the extra time on site also gave us more time to feel the local climate, plan the new landscaping and meet the neighbours...See Moredavincicalbourne
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