Expert: Richard Taylor, AIA - 10/14/2006

Question
I own a house in MD, DC metro area, and I am looking into knocking down a wall that is inbetween the kitchen and dinning room. The kitchen right now is a VERY small, 8x10 ft, galley kitchen and i want to open it up into the dinning room. Do I need a permit to do this? It is not a load bearing wall. My husband and I are doing this our selves and would appreciate any other advise that you could give us. For example, what NOt to do?
Thank you for your time
Erica

Answer
Hi Erica - thanks for your question!

Before you get started, you should carefully consider how the new space will be configured.  If the kitchen will be remodeled in the process, you may find that you don't want to remove the entire wall.  Plan it out on paper before you start demolition.

Check the locations of ductwork, plumbing, and wiring before you tear into it.  If the basement below isn't finished and you can see the floor joists above, locate the wall you're thinking of removing and follow any utilities that lead towards it.  What seems a very small job can get very big if you open up the wall and find lots of wires, ducts, and pipes!

If there's trim on the wall, remove it as carefully as you can; existing trim is much easier to patch together with salvaged trim, especially in older homes.

If the home is "old", wear a respirator - there's bound to be a lot of fine dust and other noxious stuff stirred up when you start the demo.

Finally, check that the walls on either side of the wall to be removed are flush - I'ved seen many a case where a homeowner removed an intervening wall only to discover that the walls on either side don't quite line up.  There's no easy way to make that awkward transition look good.  Better to leave a short piece of existing wall.  Same goes for the ceiling - you want the "patched" area to be invisible, like the wall was never there.  If that can't be done, then leave a dropped header to make the transition.

And of course, double and triple-check to be sure that it's not a load-bearing wall!

Hope this helps,

Richard Taylor, AIA
Richard Taylor Architects, LLC
www.rtastudio.com