Open-concept kitchens and wall removal

Why closed kitchens get opened up

Many houses in and around Pleasantville were built when the kitchen was a work room, kept separate from the dining room and parlor. Today a lot of owners want to see the dining table or the living room while they cook, and to let light from the front windows reach the back of the house. Taking out all or part of one wall can make a small first floor feel much larger.

Opening a galley kitchen to the room next door can also free up space for a peninsula or island with seating, which gives you more counter area and a place for people to sit without standing in the work zone.

Load-bearing or not

The most important question is what the wall is holding up. A partition wall that carries nothing but itself can usually come out without much drama. A load-bearing wall supports floor joists or roof framing above, and removing it means installing a beam, sometimes with posts down to the foundation. That work needs a beam sized by a structural engineer or architect and a building permit, which your contractor should arrange.

Walls also hide things. Plumbing vents, heating pipes, ducts and wiring may run through the wall you want gone, and rerouting them adds cost. A contractor can often tell a lot from the basement and attic before opening anything up.

• Ask whether the wall is load-bearing and how they know
• Ask who designs the beam and who pulls the permit
• Ask what pipes, ducts or wires are inside the wall
• Ask what happens to the floor where the old wall stood

What it costs

HomeAdvisor puts most wall removal projects at about $1,000 to $10,000, with an average near $3,000, and non-load-bearing walls at about $300 to $1,000. Fixr puts load-bearing removal at about $1,500 to $10,000. Those figures cover the wall itself. Patching floors, ceilings and finishes, and the new kitchen layout that usually follows, are separate.

Flooring is a detail people forget. When a wall comes out, there is a strip of subfloor where it stood, and the two rooms may have different floors. Many owners run new flooring through both rooms so it reads as one space.

Partial openings and pass-throughs

You do not always have to remove a whole wall. A wide cased opening, a pass-through above a counter or removing just the top half of a wall can bring in light and connect the rooms while keeping some cabinet space. These options can also cost less when the wall is load-bearing, because the beam spans a shorter distance. Ask the contractor to price a partial opening next to a full removal so you can weigh them side by side.

Planning the open layout

Losing a wall also means losing the cabinets and outlets on it. Plan where that storage goes before demolition. An island or peninsula can make up for it, and taller cabinets on the remaining walls help too. Think about where the range hood vents and how cooking smells will travel into the next room.

Typical wall removal costs

Published national ranges for the wall removal only. Not quotes.

Ranges are national figures from the sources below, rounded, and are not quotes. Westchester prices often run higher. Engineering, permits, rerouted utilities and finish work can add to the total.

Sources: HomeAdvisor, wall removal; Fixr, wall removal