Age and type of house
In an integral garage the sleeper wall under the former hall floor has been removed. What span has the survey not redesigned?
The removed sleeper wall under the former hall floor is a span the survey has not redesigned. In this integral garage the wall that used to support that floor has gone, so the floor now crosses a wider opening. The visit can record the absence. It cannot calculate a replacement, specify a beam, or sign off whatever is spanning the gap now. No length of span should be invented. The structural question is still open because the support was taken away.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
A sleeper wall is a low support under a timber floor. Take it out and the joists, or a beam that may have been inserted, have to carry further than they did. The surveyor can see that the wall is missing and can note what, if anything, is visible in its place. Seeing a ceiling from the garage is not the same as designing the floor above it.
Ask what is actually carrying the former hall floor, and whether that member was visible. Do not accept a decorated opening as a completed design. If a structural assessment is needed, that is a further instruction with calculations this report does not contain. Keep the comment as a span that has not been redesigned, not as a passed alteration and not as movement of the whole house.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What, if anything, did you see spanning where the sleeper wall had been?
- Are you recording that the support was removed, without redesigning the floor?
- Was any beam, joist end or hanger actually visible from the garage?
What are the typical next steps?
- Do not treat the missing sleeper wall as a floor the survey has redesigned.
- Find out what now carries the former hall floor before you rely on the opening.
- If a structural check is required, instruct it separately from this report.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If a steel is visible, has the span been proved adequate?
No. A visible member is not a design. The survey has not redesigned the span and has not calculated whether that member is enough.
Is removing a sleeper wall the same as subsidence?
No. This is a support that has been taken out of an integral garage. It is not a reading that the house foundations are moving.