Change the layout, not the footprint

Yes, and it is one of the most common jobs we do, usually a through lounge going back to two rooms or a big bedroom becoming two smaller ones. The parts to get right are light and access: each new room needs a window and a sensible door position, and a room that ends up with neither is not a room. We draw it out first so you can see the two spaces properly before the wall goes up.

We establish that before quoting, by looking at the joist direction, what is above it and the construction of the house rather than guessing from a tap. If it is load bearing you need a steel or a timber beam sized by a structural engineer, padstones at the bearings, temporary propping while the work happens and a building control inspection. That is a proper job, not an afternoon with a sledgehammer, and anybody offering it as one should worry you.

It will if it is built properly. Studs at the right centres, noggins where fixings will be needed, insulation in the void and double boarding where you want it to feel really solid. Tell us if a television or heavy shelving is going on it and we will put timber behind the board where the brackets land, which is much better than trying to find a fixing later.

For a non-structural partition in an existing room, usually not, though the new arrangement still has to leave habitable rooms with adequate ventilation, escape and light. For anything load bearing, forming a new opening or splitting a room in a way that affects the escape route, yes. We tell you which side of that line your job falls on before we start.

A straightforward stud wall is two to four days including the skim, and it needs a couple of days after that before it is dry enough to decorate. A structural opening with a beam is a week to ten days including propping, the engineer's inspection and making good. Both are dusty for a day or two and we sheet the route in and out accordingly.