What a wall removal actually involves, day by day

A load-bearing wall removal runs to five stages: engineer's calculation, propping and needling, the wall out, the steel bedded on padstones at each end, then boxing and making good. Building control inspects twice, once before the steel is covered and once at the end, and you keep the completion certificate. On a standard through-lounge in a Welsh terrace it is usually a three to five day job.

Most people have never seen one done and imagine a sledgehammer. It is considerably more boring than that, which is the point.

What happens before anything comes out?

The engineer’s calculations arrive first and tell us the beam size and the padstones it bears on. Building control get notified. Only then does anything get ordered, because the beam has to be made to that spec.

What happens on day one?

The room gets sheeted, the doorway sealed and the floor covered. Acrow props go in on both sides of the wall with timber spreading the load across the ceiling, and needles go through the wall itself where the span needs it. Nothing comes down until the ceiling is being held by something other than the wall.

What are the middle days like?

The wall comes out in sections. The padstones go in at each end, the steel is lifted into place and bedded, and it gets bolted and packed so the load transfers properly. This is the part building control want to see before it is covered.

When does it start to look like a room again?

The beam gets boxed in and plastered, the opening squared up, the floor made good where the wall sat. By the end there is nothing to look at, which is exactly right.

What are you left with at the end?

The completion certificate. Put it somewhere safe, because it is the document a buyer’s solicitor will ask for.