How to Tell if an Internal Wall Is Load Bearing
In most Liverpool and Merseyside homes, the wall dividing the rear kitchen and dining room (or the original rear exterior wall when building an extension) carries the weight of first floor joists, upstairs masonry walls, or roof loads.
Even if a wall sounds hollow in places, timber stud partitions in older homes often act as structural supports. We never guess: before any knock through begins, a structural engineer specifies the exact Rolled Steel Joist (RSJ) or Universal Beam (UB) section and padstone dimensions required.
Step by Step: How We Carry Out a Safe Knock Through
Our domestic teams complete structural knock throughs cleanly and methodically:
- 1. Dust Containment & Service Isolation: We isolate radiators, sockets, and switches in the wall, protect floors, and erect sealed polythene dust screens.
- 2. Temporary Acrow & Strongboy Propping: Heavy duty steel props are positioned on both sides of the wall to take the full load of the upper floor before a single brick is removed.
- 3. Masonry Opening & Engineered Padstones: We carefully dismantle the masonry wall and bed high density concrete or steel bearing padstones into the supporting piers.
- 4. Lifting & Bolting the RSJ Steel Beam: The fabricated steel beam is lifted into place, packed tight against the joists above, and inspected in person by the Building Control officer.
- 5. Fire Encasement & Plaster Skimming: Once signed off by Building Control, we encase the steel beam in double layer fire rated plasterboard and skim it smooth.