Pymble · Ku-ring-gai
Kitchen renovations in Pymble.
Almost every Pymble kitchen we are asked to quote is walled off from where the family sits. Taking that wall out is a structural job, not a joinery one — and it is where most of the budget should go.
NSW contractor licence 397801C · Ku-ring-gai Council area · About 14 minutes from our Hornsby showroom
Houses — 72.4% of Pymble
Removing the wall properly.
58.2% of Pymble dwellings have four or more bedrooms — the highest share in the district. These houses do not need more rooms. They need the kitchen connected to the one everybody actually sits in.
Find out if it carries load
Roof structure, an upper floor, or nothing at all. That answer sets the cost before any design work is worth doing.
The beam needs designing
A structural engineer specifies the member and its supports. It is a fee and a lead time, and it is not optional.
Where the load goes down
The beam has to land on something. Sometimes that means new footings, which is the cost people do not expect.
Flush or dropped
A beam concealed in the ceiling costs more than one below it. On a two-storey house it is often worth the difference.
Pymble by the numbers
3,897
occupied private dwellings in Pymble
58.2%
of homes have four or more bedrooms
$3,379
median weekly household income
24.8%
flats or apartments
How it runs
The engineer comes before the designer.
On a Pymble kitchen that sequence saves people from falling in love with a plan the house will not carry.
01
Structural assessment
Before design. Whether the wall carries load decides the budget more than the appliance list does.
02
Engineer's drawing
Beam size, support points and any footing work. Priced as a named line, not buried in the total.
03
Joinery into production
Cabinetry ordered while the structural documentation is being prepared, so the two run together.
04
Prop, remove, install beam
The disruptive week. Temporary propping, wall out, beam in, then everything else follows normally.
05
Cabinets, template, stone
Benchtop measured off the installed carcasses and fitted on a return visit. That gap is unavoidable.
Apartments — 24.8% of Pymble
In a unit the wall question changes.
968 flats and apartments by the 2021 count. Everything on this page about beams and footings falls away — in strata the answer is almost always to work within the existing envelope.
The wall is probably not yours
In a unit, a structural wall is common property. Opening it up is a general meeting matter, not a committee one.
So spend on joinery instead
Storage, integrated appliances and lighting do far more in an apartment than chasing a layout change that will not be approved.
One scope, one submission
Cabinetry, plumbing, electrical and flooring assessed together so the approval happens once.
Credentials
Licensed to do the structural half.
NSW contractor licence
397801C
Renova Holdings Pty Ltd
Director and builder
99764S
Alireza Kamalzadeh
Structural work
Engineered
Certified beam and footing design
HBCF eligibility
To 15 Oct 2028
Approved to $750,000 per dwelling
Bedroom, income and dwelling figures from the ABS 2021 Census QuickStats for Pymble (SAL13294). Structural alterations require design by a qualified engineer; internal work that does not alter structure is generally exempt development in NSW. Verify licences on the NSW Government public register.
Pymble questions
Walls, beams and budgets.
How do I know if the kitchen wall is load-bearing?
You cannot reliably tell by looking, and thickness is not a good guide. What matters is whether roof trusses, ceiling joists or an upper floor bear on it. We check in the roof space and under the floor at the first visit. That half hour decides whether this is a joinery project or a structural one.
What does removing a load-bearing wall cost?
It varies with the span and where the load goes. There is an engineer's fee, the beam itself, temporary propping, and sometimes new footings under the support points — that last item is the one that surprises people. We price it as named lines so you can see what is structure and what is kitchen.
Do we need council approval to remove it?
Generally not a planning approval. Internal work is usually exempt development in NSW even where it is structural, provided nothing external changes. What is required is a properly engineered design and the work carried out by a licensed builder — which is a different obligation to a development application.
Should the beam be flush with the ceiling?
If you can afford it, usually yes. A dropped beam below the ceiling line reads as a leftover wall and undercuts the whole point of opening the room up. Concealing it means a deeper member and more work at the supports, so it costs more. On a two-storey Pymble house it is generally worth it.
We are in an apartment. Can we still open the kitchen up?
Only if the wall is a non-structural partition entirely within your lot, and even then you need owners corporation consent. A structural wall in a unit is common property and generally requires a general meeting rather than a committee decision. In most Pymble apartments the sensible answer is to work within the existing envelope.
Which wall do you want gone?
Send a photo of it and one from the room on the other side. We'll tell you what it is holding up.
