Anyone had a wall taken out to make a room larger?

megan188, Feb 18, 8:42pm
We want to open up our kitchen and dining area.Wondering if anyone has done the same sort of thing and had a wall knocked out.Also, about how much did it cost!

reggienz, Feb 18, 9:10pm
I did minemyself. First thing is you must get a consent from your building inspector. About $500 more or less. There's quite a lot you can do your self like remove cupboards etc from the wall, take off wall lining, and take off door. Also do some of the finishing like plastering and painting etc. Think it took around 4 days to do mine so if you allow 60 to $80 an hour for a tradesman, I'd say at a guess around $3000 to $4000.

mm12345, Feb 18, 9:21pm
You don't need consent if it's a non load-bearing wall.With fingers crossed, typical conventional NZ bungalow, the wall between kitchen and dining probably isn't load-bearing - but you need to check this.
The answer to the question is that it can cost anything from a few dollars and a day or two work to DIY, through to tens of thousands of dollars.
Expensive things are design/consents/materials if the wall is load-bearing, then complications like plumbing, electrical work, and cosmetic/decoration issues around floor coverings/materials, walls or ceilings which may not line-up.

captaingraham, Feb 19, 5:23am
You don't need consent if it's a non load-bearing wall.

It could be a main bracing wall.Consent needed

russ18, Feb 19, 6:02am
You can do it without a building consent as per schedule 1, but like captaingraham says it could be bracing, you would need to ensure it's not.
http://www.dbh.govt.nz/bc-no-consent-schedule-1#internal-walls

nakiboarderr, Feb 19, 1:30pm
just get a builder to look at it.

jezabeel, Mar 14, 6:44pm
4 days your a machine mate!