Any builders in the house?

JonathanRyan

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I need a ballpark on building a stud wall.

I know that this involves a lot of sucking in air, scribbling stuff on a fag packet and saying "it's not the parts it's the labout" plus several "guv'nor"s but.....

Suppose I have a brick built non load bearing internal wall 4 metres long and 2.3m high. I want to demolish it and build a stud wall 1 metre further over. Finished to plasterboard (I'll get a plasterer separately). Ballpark cost?

Also, imagine I want to build another stud wall in another place. Same spec as wall 1 but without knocking down the brick wall first.

Oh and please don't say "you can do this yourself". You may be able to, I know my limitations ;)
 
It will all depend on a few things as usual. Try and measure and cost up materials for the replacement stud walls yourself including delivery. Demolishing the wall would or should be only a few hours work for one bloke, if you can do that yourself as it is not load bearing then take into consideration the price of a skip if you need one. Any decent trade would knock up the stud wall easily within the day including boarding it out. As with a similar thread on here before it depends how much work for people is about in your area, some guy might do it cheap another might be a few quid more. I know people who will work £10 hr cash in the hand, personally though with this, if you wanted it all done by one firm then get it priced up as opposed to doing it on day work. I am curious about " suppose you have a brick wall " bit :thinking: either you have or you have not :shrug:
 
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I am curious about " suppose you have a brick wall " bit :thinking: either you have or you have not :shrug:

A brick wall exists. But it's not mine yet ;)

It's a property I'm looking at purchasing and wanted a ballpark on some work to drop into a spreadsheet. If it costs too much (there's a bunch of other work to estimate) then I won't buy it.

I've seen a suggestion online that an average price for the demolish, remove, replace job would be around £1K (maybe between £500 and £1,500 - depends on time of year and cabling) - does that seem wildly out?

My back of the envelope guess would be that it's a carpenter + mate X 1 day + skip + materials. An experienced carpenter round here charges between £200 and £300 a day and a mate is about 2/3 of that (say 120 - 200) and I know skips are expensive. That seems to fit with £1K job done.
 
A brick wall exists. But it's not mine yet ;)

It's a property I'm looking at purchasing and wanted a ballpark on some work to drop into a spreadsheet. If it costs too much (there's a bunch of other work to estimate) then I won't buy it.

I've seen a suggestion online that an average price for the demolish, remove, replace job would be around £1K (maybe between £500 and £1,500 - depends on time of year and cabling) - does that seem wildly out?

My back of the envelope guess would be that it's a carpenter + mate X 1 day + skip + materials. An experienced carpenter round here charges between £200 and £300 a day and a mate is about 2/3 of that (say 120 - 200) and I know skips are expensive. That seems to fit with £1K job done.

Not too far out I reckon, if you feel that is within your budget then just get two or three quotes and go from there.
 
Not too far out I reckon, if you feel that is within your budget then just get two or three quotes and go from there.

Thanks ;) It's more stacking up the numbers - there are a bunch of things to price and sequence. I'll work with ballparks until I can make a go/no go and then get proper quotes. The odds are that one of the jobs will turn out vastly harder than I plan so I'll budget for that.

I actually enjoy stuff like this - it's like project management without the Gantt charts.
 
Thanks ;) It's more stacking up the numbers - there are a bunch of things to price and sequence. I'll work with ballparks until I can make a go/no go and then get proper quotes. The odds are that one of the jobs will turn out vastly harder than I plan so I'll budget for that.

I actually enjoy stuff like this - it's like project management without the Gantt charts.
No probs, it gets the grey matter working thats for sure. Having worked in construction most of my life I have seen costly mistakes made on small jobs where things were not worked out properly, and I have seen astronomical mistakes made on big civil engineering projects aslo.
 
Jonathan, when it comes to it, try to get proper quotes rather than estimates. An estimates can be wildly out while a quote should be what you pay. Detail exactly what you want done so nothing gets added for extras. I'm sure you don't need telling that you can't have too many sockets (and you can always leave some potential socket sites as loops behind blanking plates.)
 
So....next on my list.....

Soffits, fascias and (maybe) guttering). £100 a metre sound about right? (That's to remove existing wood and replace with new plastic including tower etc before anybody thinks I'll pay £400 for a strip of plastic :D )
 
You could always save a bit by knocking the wall down yourself, its a great stress release :D
 
You could always save a bit by knocking the wall down yourself, its a great stress release :D

I could. But the picking it up, carrying it downstairs and putting it in a skip isn't nearly so much fun ;)
 
Less hassle if you can get the tube/chute to take it from window to skip. Leave the carpet down when knocking the wall down - it'll provide a little cushioning for the flooring and will be little use when the room(s) are altered anyway! If possible, break the wall down fairly gently - bigger chunks need less handling - but mind your back. Decent gloves are a must!
 
Less hassle if you can get the tube/chute to take it from window to skip. Leave the carpet down when knocking the wall down - it'll provide a little cushioning for the flooring and will be little use when the room(s) are altered anyway! If possible, break the wall down fairly gently - bigger chunks need less handling - but mind your back. Decent gloves are a must!

See the bit above about knowing my limitations? :D

Joking apart, I reckon the swinging the hammer and carrying heavy stuff bit is the cheapest thing to outsource. Skips cost a lot of money, rubble chutes cost a bit of money - a day's work from a teenager with a lump hammer and a dust mask probably doesn't cost a lot.
 
I would get it looked at by a SE, even if you know it isn't load bearing it may still have structural importance.

9 times out of 10 you will be fine, but with odds like that Murphy's law has a tendency of cropping up.
 
If it is a house you are thinking of buying, why not take a builder around and get quotes. You will need a survey done anyway.
You can get more quotes when the house is yours.
 
From work we had done recently here's my guesstimate.


Wall removal

1day - tradesman + labourer c£250
1/2 day electrician (presume sockets etc in wall to be removed?) £100
Skip hire c.£110 depending on skip size and street license (if no drive)

New wall
1day - tradesman + labourer c£250
Stud partition timber 20x2.4m ~£80
Stud wall insulation ~8m2 £60 (required under new regs)
Plasterboard 12 sheets ~£90
New skirting ~4x2.4m £36
1 day Plasterer inc plaster skim materials £150
1 day Electrician install sockets etc., test and P certification £200


So, my guesstimate £1300 ish but I'm sure the materials can be got for a little cheaper but not much compared to the original cost.
 
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