How much does it cost to knock down a wall?

[aristocatz]

It would be to open up our kitchen to our dining room.

Non-load bearing, no plumbing, but currently has a baseboard/heat on one side. One electrical outlet.

New homeowners, so I'm not sure if this is a "depends on how big the wall is" or "depends on where you live" type question.

I'm just looking for an estimated range of costs.

Thanks!

 

[Janepod]

It would be to open up our kitchen to our dining room.

Non-load bearing, no plumbing, but currently has a baseboard/heat on one side. One electrical outlet.

New homeowners, so I'm not sure if this is a "depends on how big the wall is" or "depends on where you live" type question.

I'm just looking for an estimated range of costs.

Thanks!

You can knock it down yourself for free.
The expense is sealing it back up. Moving the outlet. Carting. Plumbing. Etc. Is it plaster or drywall? If the latter, to do the whole thing with my contractor is probably $800-$1000. More if there's a lot of trash and he needs a dumpster.

Plaster, I have no idea, but it will be more.

 

[aristocatz]

You can knock it down yourself for free.
The expense is sealing it back up. Moving the outlet. Carting. Plumbing. Etc. Is it plaster or drywall? If the latter, to do the whole thing with my contractor is probably $800-$1000. More if there's a lot of trash and he needs a dumpster.

Plaster, I have no idea, but it will be more.

It's drywall. Thank you-$1000 isn't that bad! My DH thinks he could knock it down himself, but it's the other stuff you mentioned that I'm not sure he could do.

 

[abdmom]

The repair to the floor could be significant. You may have to completely redo both rooms. Then there is repair to any adjoining walls and the ceiling. Again, you wouuld have to repaint both.

 

[Darcy03231]

I live in southern NH. We had to relocate baseboard heat when we decided to take the picture window out of our family room and put in French doors. As I recall it ran about $500. We relocated it on to a different wall. You don't just want to take it out as you might find the room gets too cold in the winter without it.

 

[aristocatz]

The repair to the floor could be significant. You may have to completely redo both rooms. Then there is repair to any adjoining walls and the ceiling. Again, you wouuld have to repaint both.

Thank you-we are planning to redo the floors in both rooms-already figured an average price for that! I think my DH priced it for $1500 (for good wood laminate, like Pergo + installation. My DH wants to rip up the current tile & parquet himself). Painting, we can definitely handle ourselves. Not sure how much the repair to the walls/ceiling would be?

I live in southern NH. We had to relocate baseboard heat when we decided to take the picture window out of our family room and put in French doors. As I recall it ran about $500. We relocated it on to a different wall. You don't just want to take it out as you might find the room gets too cold in the winter without it.

Thank you-we are in Western Massachusetts, so we do have cold winters probably similar to where you live. We have baseboard running along the dining room currently we have some along another wall in the kitchen. My DH thinks it would be enough to sufficiently heat the room if we made it one large room.

 

[mickeyboat]

Is your baseboard heat electric or from a boiler? If it is water baseboard heat you will need to hire a plumber to remove and reroute it.

 

[aristocatz]

Is your baseboard heat electric or from a boiler? If it is water baseboard heat you will need to hire a plumber to remove and reroute it.

Yes, it is water baseboard & thank you-I did not think of that! Is that always the scenario (that you need to hire a plumber) or does it depend on where the cut off is?

 

[mickeyboat]

Unless you know what you are doing you need to hire a plumber. He will need to drain your system, cut and reroute the pipe, and then refill and restart the system. The system is under pressure and if you cut a pipe, you risk losing heat in other rooms.

 

[aristocatz]

Unless you know what you are doing you need to hire a plumber. He will need to drain your system, cut and reroute the pipe, and then refill and restart the system. The system is under pressure and if you cut a pipe, you risk losing heat in other rooms.

Thank you-I will add that to our expense list. I wonder-is that a major job or pretty fast? Just wondering how many hours of plumber work it would cost...

 

[Janepod]

Thank you-I will add that to our expense list. I wonder-is that a major job or pretty fast? Just wondering how many hours of plumber work it would cost...

Two hours, I would estimate, assuming there is nothing weird about your house. (Unlike our bizarre four-zone house in which the downstairs living room and upstairs master bath are one zone )

 

[Darcy03231]

Thank you-I will add that to our expense list. I wonder-is that a major job or pretty fast? Just wondering how many hours of plumber work it would cost...

That was what cost us the $500 - the plumber.

 

[Imzadi]

You can knock it down yourself for free.
The expense is sealing it back up. Moving the outlet. Carting. Plumbing. Etc. Is it plaster or drywall? If the latter, to do the whole thing with my contractor is probably $800-$1000. More if there's a lot of trash and he needs a dumpster.

Plaster, I have no idea, but it will be more.

This. Especially with a drywall & lumber wall. Save your money for the rebuild. I had a wall torn down. I didn't know ANYTHING about knocking down walls, what material, etc. I asked my friend, who was a technical designer for theatre as well as carpenter if he could knock down a wall. I offered him $500.

He shows up with only a HAMMER. That was it. It took him maybe 10 minutes at the most to bust through the drywall, pull it down then whack down the wood beams. I realized it was a $150-$200 job at the most. But, again, I didn't know how little was involved.

Yours is going to be bit more involved with closing off the electrical conduit and and the plumbing. But the drywall part will be a breeze to knock down. Just do it in sections way above the heater, and you will see how little is involved. You can work your way down towards the heater. Even leave it there until the plumber is finished. Once you punch a hole in the wall way above the outlet, you will be able to see were the electrical conduit is, to work around that. Of course have the electricity off.

Again, save the money for the redo and fixing the floor.