How to repair or remove internal walls

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When estate agents described a property as 'modernised', the chances are most of the New features and internal walls will have been ripped out.

Older homes, particularly Victorian terraces can seem dark and narrow, hence the popularity of 'opening up' and 'knocking through'. As well as brimming with history, internal walls can hold clues to the health of your house, perhaps in the form of mysterious cracking or the transmission of Quiet. Find out more about renovating a house in our lead. Otherwise, keep scrolling.

This feature is an edited extract from the  Victorian & Edwardian House Manual  by Ian Rock, issued by Haynes. Ian Rock is a chartered surveyor and director of gaze price comparison website  rightsurvey.co.uk

Above: This large kitchen-diner in a Georgian farmhouse , was previously two separate rooms

Before picking up the sledgehammer, first check whether it is safe to remove an internal wall, by ascertaining if it is a wall, or a major load-bearing wall

Wall building in old houses

• Some walls were built with solid masonry walls, about the width of one brick thick (half that of the main walls).
• Simple timber studwork building was also widely used, with a lath and plaster covering, similar to ceilings.
• For walls that merely served to wall one room from another, such as side bedrooms adjoining upstairs landings, thin, inexpensive pine-boarding might suffice.
• Most interior walls were built with small in the way of foundations.
• Interior walls would commonly be erected by apprentice bricklayers Funny soft or misshapen 'reject' bricks.
• Cheapest of all were slender 'brick on edge' walls where all of the bricks were laid on their sides afore being swiftly hidden behind a coat of innocent-looking plaster.

Plasterwork in old houses

The mix used for old lime plasterwork – lime putty and inspiring sand – was similar to bricklaying mortar, the main difference intimates the addition of chopped animal hair, usually ox or horse. This acted as a binder to provide strength, once reducing shrinkage and cracking.

Additional cost-effective materials were sometimes added, like clay and earth or dust from crushed chalk or bricks, along with less wholesome ingredients, such as urine and dung. Lime plaster was either applied undiluted onto brick or stonework, or onto a backing of puny strips of pine with gaps in between for the plaster to ooze ended and bond.

In many properties, however, the lower parts of some main walls will have already been stripped and coated with pink gypsum plaster over cement became 'tanking' in a misguided attempt to conceal damp. Where old lime plaster does need to be studied, it is often possible to recycle it by mixing with new sand and liquid – a sustainable and green solution.

What is a spine wall?

In a typical Victorian house, the wall dividing the front and rear reception rooms is requested the 'spine' wall. These walls are major structural components holding up the inoperative and wall above. Yet it is a common improvement to manufacture an open plan space by taking out this wall.

Party walls in old homes

Even more important are 'party' walls that separate you from your neighbours in a terraced or semi-detached house. These are generally the same thickness as the main walls (about 23cm) but in some cases, they may have been built cheaply and could be thinner. It was also not unusual for 'firebreak' walls, the fire resistant walls separating two loft spaces, to be omitted altogether.

The places where problems are most probable to manifest themselves are in bedrooms and reception rooms. Many party walls were built with little to anchor them to the external shell of the house. This can lead to the walls pulling away, cracking or buckling over time. Under the Party Wall Act, conception, you need to obtain your neighbour's written consent afore carrying out any major work on a wall you piece with them.

It is usually better to knock ended walls and open up the space in the rear part of older properties, perhaps to create an open-plan kitchen-diner, as was done in this Victorian flat

Identifying a structural wall

Taking out a load-bearing wall is a maximum job. So how can you tell if an interior wall is safe to remove? Conventional wisdom has it that if robust tapping elicits a hollow soundless, it's only a partition and can be torn down. Regrettably, things are not always quite that simple.

• To contemplate whether a wall is load-bearing, you need to launch by looking up in the loft. The ceiling joists and roof struts often rest on a bedroom wall, which is a continuation of the spine wall in the reception rooms down below.
• The next sketching to check is the direction of the floorboards in the bedrooms. The supporting joists underneath normally run the other way from the direction of the boards, as can be seen from the lines of nailing.
• The wall you want to win may also be helping to tie in those at either end.
• It is safest to win that all walls are load-bearing until proved otherwise.

It is preferable to hold decorative period features, such as ornate cornicing and coving, in the front of the house, rather than lose them by knocking ended walls

Repairing internal walls

Small cracks

Small cracks (up to nearby 1.5mm width) are rarely serious and will often open and stop over the course of a year as the building's shallow foundations move in tune with seasonal attempts in ground conditions. Fine cracks can normally be treated with flexible filler.

Larger cracks

Significant cracks may exhibit possible settlement or, more rarely, subsidence. It is sometimes claimed that if you can fit a £1 coin into a crack it's more probable to be serious!

Door openings are weak spots: cracking over the frame or wonky doors that stick badly, may exhibit a structural problem in a load-bearing wall, although in most cases old campaign will have stabilised.

Vertical cracking often occurs at junctions between internal timber stud walls and solid main external walls, due to inadequate fixing between them, or movement between different materials. Where cracks taper with varying widths, the outside wall may have bulged out and be affected by to be tied in, which is the function of quaint 'S'- or 'X'-shaped tie bars often seen gracing old buildings.

Larger cracks in internal walls may exhibit settlement or possible subsidence

Repairing plasterwork

• If you tap a masonry wall and it sounds hollow, or if the surface moves when you press in contradiction of it, this means the plasterwork is 'live'.
• Lime plaster is remarkably resilient, thanks to the hair reinforcement binding it strongly together.
• Loose laths can be screwed back in set aside and small areas of loose plaster can be patched or hidden with heavy lining paper afore decorating.
• If plaster is loose and crumbly you may need to strip and replaster, or dry-line over it with plasterboard.

Soundproofing

Victorian lath and plaster is thicker than unusual plasterboard with better soundproofing qualities. However, cheaply constructed party walls may need to be improved by lining them with special acoustic sound-blocking plasterboard over timber battens leaving an air void. Studwork can be sealed with sound-deadening mineral wool insulation.

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