# Forum Home Renovation Demolition  Knocking down a Plaster & Timber wall

## synoangel

Hi All, 
I have been looking at the idea of knocking down the wall between my dining area and my lounge. The wall itself is about 8 meters long and runs the entire width of house (across 2 rooms), with about 2 meters being an external brick wall, the remainder is timber and plaster. 
Shown below is a photo of the roof cavity, you will see that the small/medium timber beams join. Below this is a 4 meter wide section of the wall which I wish to remove, the wall runs perpendicular to these joins so I think it is structual, although not entirely sure as the house is only about 90sm, and was built 40 years ago. 
The roof is a flat pitch roof, with no room to move. 
PS: Image is attached. 
Daniel

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## r3nov8or

The wall is supporting the struts (near-vertical timbers) which are supporting the roof rafters.  
You will need a way to support the rafters before removing the struts or the wall. Maybe an underpurlin and additional (larger) struts past each end of the wall you are removing.  
You'll need someone to size the members, or provide some accurate measurements of the roof space noting all existing members and we may be able to make some suggestions.  
If space is tight you may need to remove the roof sheets to get access.

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## synoangel

Thanks for the response after reviewing the house plans the wall is definately IMO structural (as per attached plan). I have marked in red what I plan to remove. It is also gives everyone a much better idea of what I'm talking about. 
The other concern is that I have 6 meters of solar panels directly above this area (standard 1kw system), therefore removing sheets of metal may be limited to only the ones that dont have panels on top, I would think this would allow me to remove only 1-2 meters (in width) of sheeting. 
Daniel

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## Bloss

It sure is structural, but as r3nov8o says so long as you can pick up the loads taken by those struts it's not a huge issue. A strutting beam in the ceiling space above the existing wall with new struts onto it or simply a steel beam supported at either end and directly supporting those rafters would do it. But this is not for guesswork - you'll need advice on what sizes are needed and to work out access. If you were prepared to have a beam into the room below you could take off the cladding of the existing wall, cut and fit a beam and some new jack studs to hold it, remove the wall below and then box around the new beam. Again could be timber or steel and you need professional advice & plans to do that.

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## seemax

Strutting beam to support the struts. F17 should do the trick.
The issue is getting access, you'll have to remove some roofing.

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