how much should it cost to knock a wall down

[brainhulk]

2 story house. ~20'x10' wall.

I wanna open up the family room to the dining room

 

[dank69]

Load bearing I assume?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Depends if it's load bearing or not. If it's not load bearing, I'd say under 1k. The cost will be in fixing up the floor and ceiling where the wall was. May have to repaint the whole ceiling after. If there's texturing that adds to the work. Floor, it depends what's there on both sides. May have to redo a whole side to make it match. To minimize on dust cut large sections of drywall and try to get them off clean. Sure it's more fun to just go at it with a hammer but that just makes a huge mess.

If it's load bearing, then you're probably looking at getting an engineer involved if you want to do it right. Even Holmes usually brings in an engineer for stuff like this. Though if you want to save from that, just be sure to put in a beam and make sure what is holding the beam there is as strong if stronger than the beam itself. You can't just stick a beam anywhere, it has to be supported and what is supported has to be able to support what the beam supports. Common sense... yet some people do not know this. "Bah just sister a couple extra joists". On what? The 2x4 stud wall on both sides? Not enough.

To get an idea if it's load bearing, is it perpendicular to the joists? And do the joists end at that wall, and new joists start? That's a good indication. If you are not sure, assume it's load bearing, or get an expert. Load bearing walls will normally be in the center of the house too, but you can't just go by that.

 

[brainhulk]

Depends if it's load bearing or not. If it's not load bearing, I'd say under 1k. The cost will be in fixing up the floor and ceiling where the wall was. May have to repaint the whole ceiling after. If there's texturing that adds to the work. Floor, it depends what's there on both sides. May have to redo a whole side to make it match. To minimize on dust cut large sections of drywall and try to get them off clean. Sure it's more fun to just go at it with a hammer but that just makes a huge mess.

If it's load bearing, then you're probably looking at getting an engineer involved if you want to do it right. Even Holmes usually brings in an engineer for stuff like this. Though if you want to save from that, just be sure to put in a beam and make sure what is holding the beam there is as strong if stronger than the beam itself. You can't just stick a beam anywhere, it has to be supported and what is supported has to be able to support what the beam supports. Common sense... yet some people do not know this. "Bah just sister a couple extra joists". On what? The 2x4 stud wall on both sides? Not enough.

To get an idea if it's load bearing, is it perpendicular to the joists? And do the joists end at that wall, and new joists start? That's a good indication. If you are not sure, assume it's load bearing, or get an expert. Load bearing walls will normally be in the center of the house too, but you can't just go by that.

Yeah it does appear to be load bearing to me, and wouldn't mind having the beam. What would be the typical cost to have a contractor do that?

 

[swanysto]

Yeah it does appear to be load bearing to me, and wouldn't mind having the beam. What would be the typical cost to have a contractor do that?

Could get pricey. Those beams can get expensive. Not to mention they will have to either break into wall to set the beam, or add posts. If you add posts, you are looking at wrapping them up in drywall or paneling. My guess would have to be non-union. You are still looking in the neighborhood of $5k. Of course red squirrel is correct in it could be more cause you could have texturing on the ceiling and such. And it also depends on the flooring. It is a pain if you have wood/tile floors.

 

[brainhulk]

Could get pricey. Those beams can get expensive. Not to mention they will have to either break into wall to set the beam, or add posts. If you add posts, you are looking at wrapping them up in drywall or paneling. My guess would have to be non-union. You are still looking in the neighborhood of $5k. Of course red squirrel is correct in it could be more cause you could have texturing on the ceiling and such. And it also depends on the flooring. It is a pain if you have wood/tile floors.

Yeah ceiling has textured paint(got rid of the popcorn when i bought the house) and floor is wood tile

 

[DrPizza]

The height of the wall doesn't have much of an impact on cost - it's the length of the wall. I'm not a contractor, nor have much experience with such a task (helped with that, once about 30 years ago as a teen.)

At the ceiling, provided you can do the work without damaging the ceiling, you won't have a tremendous amount of finishing expense, beyond the beam & boxing it in. Ditto, end of the beams where they're supported. You're looking at some drywall; dirt cheap if you can handle drywall yourself.

Now, inside the wall, electrical wiring. If the wiring runs up to the 2nd story (if there's a 2nd story), then you're going to have some rewiring to do - not a major problem though. If there's any plumbing in that wall, say supply lines to a bathroom - now you're stepping up, in possible problems - hopefully, you have other interior walls that you can run the new plumbing through (you don't want to run through an exterior wall, at least in the north where the lines would be more prone to freezing.)

The floor. HUGE variation in prices here. Carpeting? You're probably going to have to recarpet. Wood flooring? Again, it's going to depend. I think that if in both rooms, the wood flooring is running perpendicular to where the wall was, and if both rooms have the same type of wood flooring, then you might be able to cheat and install an accent strip of wood where the wall used to be; something that denotes a sort of separation into two areas. If you don't want that, and instead want to blend the floors together to give the appearance of one unified area, then you're talking a bit more money AND need to be able to get matching wood flooring.

Total cost? Are you talking just materials? Are you going to do it yourself (do you know what you're doing?)

Anywhere from $500 (you do the work, no rewiring necessary (would be a miracle), box in the beam, have the tools, have necessary materials to brace ceiling while installing the beam, etc., and lucky that you can do flooring cheaply by putting in an accent strip; to $15,000+ (contractor & worst case scenarios.)

Another thing I thought about - what's supporting the floor that's supporting that supporting wall? Is the load of the wall spread out to multiple columns in the basement? Thus, would you be redistributing the load to just 2 columns instead of multiple columns?

 

[brainhulk]

The height of the wall doesn't have much of an impact on cost - it's the length of the wall. I'm not a contractor, nor have much experience with such a task (helped with that, once about 30 years ago as a teen.)

At the ceiling, provided you can do the work without damaging the ceiling, you won't have a tremendous amount of finishing expense, beyond the beam & boxing it in.

Now, inside the wall, electrical wiring. If the wiring runs up to the 2nd story (if there's a 2nd story), then you're going to have some rewiring to do - not a major problem though. If there's any plumbing in that wall, say supply lines to a bathroom - now you're stepping up, in possible problems - hopefully, you have other interior walls that you can run the new plumbing through (you don't want to run through an exterior wall, at least in the north where the lines would be more prone to freezing.)

The floor. HUGE variation in prices here. Carpeting? You're probably going to have to recarpet. Wood flooring? Again, it's going to depend. I think that if in both rooms, the wood flooring is running perpendicular to where the wall was, and if both rooms have the same type of wood flooring, then you might be able to cheat and install an accent strip of wood where the wall used to be; something that denotes a sort of separation into two areas. If you don't want that, and instead want to blend the floors together to give the appearance of one unified area, then you're talking a bit more money AND need to be able to get matching wood flooring.

Total cost? Are you talking just materials? Are you going to do it yourself (do you know what you're doing?)

Anywhere from $500 (you do the work, no rewiring necessary (would be a miracle), box in the beam, have the tools, have necessary materials to brace ceiling while installing the beam, etc., and lucky that you can do flooring cheaply by putting in an accent strip; to $15,000+ (contractor & worst case scenarios.)

There is electrical wiring in there, no plumbing, and I probably would elect for matching wood panels on the floor. So up to $15k huh? Wow a lot more than I thought it would be

 

[Markbnj]

There is electrical wiring in there, no plumbing, and I probably would elect for matching wood panels on the floor. So up to $15k huh? Wow a lot more than I thought it would be

Rather than knocking the whole wall down, you might think about opening it up with two sets of double-wide doors, for example. Either open or with french-paned doors that let a lot of light through. Since you'd leave enough wall around for rerouting wiring, and wouldn't need the beam, it might be less expensive and less trouble.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Pics.

 

[DrPizza]

There is electrical wiring in there, no plumbing, and I probably would elect for matching wood panels on the floor. So up to $15k huh? Wow a lot more than I thought it would be

That's just a wild guess toward the upper end. As I said, 15k+ was for worst case scenario. If both rooms were carpeted and you wanted matching carpeting throughout, you're replacing the carpeting for both rooms. The cost of the floor alone is a huge variable. There wouldn't be a ton of finish work to do for a drywaller, but you're still going to pay a decent amount. Regardless of whether the job is small enough to finish each trip in 10 minutes, or 1 hour, it's still multiple trips, multiple clean-ups. Had there been plumbing, rerouting could potentially be a major headache. How is the floor supported - multiple columns? Cost of the engineer/architect, etc.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Buy a sledgehammer, go to town. 30 bucks or so.

Hey, you said knock a wall down, nothing about making it pretty

 

[rommelrommel]

Doors would be cheaper, also a few things you can do to save money... if it's not load bearing you can still leave a small faux beam, saves you the trouble trying to match the ceilings to each other.

 

[Sluggo]

There is electrical wiring in there, no plumbing, and I probably would elect for matching wood panels on the floor. So up to $15k huh? Wow a lot more than I thought it would be

You are certain of no plumbing because there is no water service in the wall, or you have seen inside and know there are no plumbing vents or drains in side the wall?

 

[jagec]

Buy a sledgehammer, go to town. 30 bucks or so.

Hey, you said knock a wall down, nothing about making it pretty

The costs aren't in knocking the wall down, the costs are in making sure that the other walls stay up after you're done.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Get bids?

 

[wirednuts]

need pics. also, if your basement is unfinished you can look there to see if there is any plumbing pipes going up that wall.

to be honest though, 20ft wall... thats too big. youre talking a massive project that likely will cost $10K+. it would literally be restructuring the house. i would seriously consider just adding french doors between the rooms and calling it a day. that would set you back less then $2k total cost of parts and labor.

 

[ringtail]

``

 

[brainhulk]

it's not 20 ft, just a major overestimation because I was to lazy to measure (it may be 12'). I'll try to take pics tomorrow when I get home from work. it's gonna be a crappy cell phone pic, because my pc died over the weekend.

There is no basement(sorry Old's). I'm on a concrete slab foundation.

I did a lot of overtime this year, i'm thinking I'll get a lot back from my tax return...hehe

 

[MonKENy]

can you take pics of the wall on both sides for me? I need to see how many switches/outlets and the locations as well as the joints where it meets the ceiling, floor and other walls.

I can give you an estimate

<~~~~~Did Construction for several years, went to a trade school for 3 and have friends/family all in the business.

 

[brainhulk]

can you take pics of the wall on both sides for me? I need to see how many switches/outlets and the locations as well as the joints where it meets the ceiling, floor and other walls.

I can give you an estimate

<~~~~~Did Construction for several years, went to a trade school for 3 and have friends/family all in the business.

awesome, i'll take the pics when i get home from work

 

[BladeVenom]

I wanna open up the family room to the dining room

What about partially opening it up, with a door and bar?

Something like this, maybe?

 

[brainhulk]

What about partially opening it up, with a door and bar?

Something like this, maybe?

That looks nice, but i really want to have the larger living room space. I also have a hyperactive rugrat running around

 

[brainhulk]

This is very rough layout of the floor plan and the wall I wanna take out

 

[Sepen]

I had a bedroom in my family room area and took out the wall and made it one large room. It was a 12' wall and I used a triple 2x12 laminated beam along with a quad 2x4 post. I wrapped it all with select pine, installed crown molding and painted it all. It exceeded my expectations and I did it all by myself. Taking the wall down-supporting the ceilings (it was a load bearing wall) and putting the laminated beam and post took me about 4 hours from start to finish. If I get a chance today I will upload a pic. If it truly is not a load bearing wall it should be rather simple outside of the ceiling and floor repair.

This is very rough layout of the floor plan and the wall I wanna take out