A load-bearing wall can nearly always be opened up. A steel beam takes its place and carries the floors above. That needs a structural calculation and, in almost all cases, an environmental permit from your municipality. We arrange the whole thing in English; the work itself usually takes two to five working days.
A load-bearing wall holds up more than itself: the joists of the floor above, a wall on the storey above, sometimes the roof. There are rules of thumb (masonry walls of 100 mm and thicker often carry load, and the direction of the joists tells you a lot), but only the drawings or an engineer can give you certainty.
In practice: send us a few photos of the wall, the room above it and, if you have them, the floor plans. We can usually tell you quickly whether the wall carries load and what the job involves. That costs you nothing.
The load the wall carried has to go somewhere. Usually that is a steel beam bearing on the masonry that stays on both sides. For wider openings, or where little wall is left, steel columns go under the beam: a portal frame. The calculation shows which section is needed, how large the bearings must be and whether the foundation can take it.
Our own structural engineer does that work to the Eurocode, in a report the municipality can assess directly. No external consultant, no waiting between builder and engineer: the person who calculates and the person who builds sit at the same table.
Once you approve the quote we draw the existing and the new situation and calculate the opening. As soon as the permit is granted we schedule the work. It always runs in the same order: propping to carry the load temporarily, sawing the wall (with dust extraction; it stays demolition work, but it is not a building site), setting and packing the steel, taking out the props, and making good: patching, plastering or painting. At the end you cannot tell a wall stood there.
Most jobs are finished in two to five working days. You can stay in the house while we work.
Removing a load-bearing wall almost always requires an environmental permit (omgevingsvergunning). The municipality wants to see a drawing and a structural calculation, and has eight weeks by law to decide. We submit the application for you and answer the questions they ask, all in Dutch on your behalf. If your wall has already been opened up and the municipality asks for paperwork afterwards, we can arrange that too.
That depends on the span, on what the wall carries and on how far you want the finishing to go. Expect a few thousand euros for the complete job.
The price comes in two steps. After your photos you get an indicative price for the whole job, including a fixed price for the drawing and the calculation. Once that calculation is finished we know which section is needed, what the bearings look like and how much making good is involved. At that point the price for the work is fixed. That way you do not pay for uncertainty we would otherwise have to guess at, and there are no surprises afterwards.
Our projects show what jobs like this look like in practice.
Send a few photos and you will know where you stand within one working day.