We're playing around with ideas for our renos at the moment so please excuse large number of question asking threads from me!

The previous owners had an extension built off the back of our fairly basic, rectangular house. The extension is about 2/3 the width of the house and runs off the kitchen. The entrance to the extension is where I'm assuming the external door or window was originally. The extension is a bit of an awkward shape, rectangular but not wide enough or long enough to set up as a lounge room and has a gas log fire in one corner and on the same wall has a sliding glass door to out the back (a metre off the ground with no stairs).

Since it's dead space as it is, my idea is to knock down what's left of the kitchen wall, about 2/3 the width of the extension, push the kitchen out a bit, whack a breakfast bar in. The extension would then become our meals area and eventually we'll put a deck in out the back leading from the sliding door.

Is it possible to knock down that much of an external wall? Will it cost us a small fortune to do?

need pics mate - all things are possible but knowing for example, if the home is timber or brick veneer will assist. Knowing where it is and how high the home is off the ground and all that will help folks to advise as well. Maybe add you suburb to your sidebar ID thingie

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Steve
Kilmore (Melbourne-ish)
Australia

....catchy phrase here

House is brick veneer and on a slope, it's on stumps and not far off the ground at the front (maybe 30-50cms?) and about a metre off the ground at the back.

Front of the house:


Kitchen - end wall on the right is start of opening for the extension


Extension:


And to the left of the opening for the extension is the meals area which is in the original external wall straight line:

By far, the cheapest way to do this is to remove the kitchen window and allow the space to flow through that into your new area - no additional reinforcing work required, just removal of window and brickwork underneath it..... of course, when I say "just" there will be a huge amount of work on top of that, but you know what I mean

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Steve
Kilmore (Melbourne-ish)
Australia

....catchy phrase here

The kitchen window (the one above the sink, is that what you were talking about?) opens onto our small sideway. The wall I want to remove is the one to the right in the kitchen photo, with the microwave and stove and overhead cupboards, that wall runs between the extension and the kitchen. Or if you're refering to the window in the meals area that opens on to a 1 metre drop and paving with our rubbish bins, so probably not the best place either! Will see if I can dig up some exterior photos to give you a better idea of the extension's position.

This is how it looks externally:


The garage is to the immediate left, sliding door is on the extension and the large windows to the left beyond the fence are the meals area windows and the original end of the house.

So, if you want to extend the home out precisely on the same footprint as the current end wall (the one with the aircon and slider) then that's quite straightforward. Access looks like a bit of a challenge, as dopes replacing those bricks seamlessly, if that's your hope. But it is all do-able. I reckon as a totally rough guide, based on what you're saying, the cost would come in at as much as $75K ... but I am not a builder!

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Steve
Kilmore (Melbourne-ish)
Australia

....catchy phrase here

Steve, I don't think he is going to change the external footprint, just change the layout by removing an internal wall which was previously an external wall and therefore presumably load bearing.

Short answer is anything is possible, but you will need an engineer to give you the specs on how you need to support the load currently held up by the 2/3 of the wall you want to remove. No real idea on the cost of advice and to install a steel beam or similar but expect this would be reasonable in regard to the extra usability of the space to be achieved - $5 - 8k??

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If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing

I did a similar thing last year.
You will need to get advice on the beam size required for that span.
Acro props will also become your good friend.

Ok thanks .... I am becoming better at getting things wrong all the time

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Steve
Kilmore (Melbourne-ish)
Australia

....catchy phrase here