Open-plan living is the most common structural alteration in British housing - and 'is this wall load-bearing?' the most common question we answer. Here's how a wall removal actually gets designed, and why the beam is only half of it.
First: what is the wall carrying?
Direction of floor joists, walls above, roof members landing on it, even the humble strutting under a landing - an engineer traces the load path from roof to foundation. Walls that look trivial sometimes carry a purlin strut; stud walls are sometimes load-bearing. This is inspection work, not guesswork, and it's why we look before we size anything.
The design: beam, bearings, and below
- The beam - sized for bending, shear and (critically, for finishes) deflection
- Bearings and padstones - concentrated loads must land on masonry that can take them
- What's underneath - those point loads travel down; walls and foundations below are checked
- Temporary works - how the structure is held up while the wall comes out; method matters
Approval and paperwork
A load-bearing wall removal is notifiable building work: Building Control approval, engineer's calculations, inspection, completion certificate. That certificate is what your buyer's solicitor will ask for in five years - the retrospective route (regularisation) exists, but it means opening up finished work and costs far more than doing it right the first time. Our package covers the calculations, details and Building Control responses; add a survey first if you're not certain what the wall is doing.