Can I demolish a supporting wall between two living rooms?

Happy new year to you too!! Nothing is impossible, however it is not as easy as just knocking the dividing wall out! Your first port of call should be a structural engineer, he will calculate thickness of the RSJ, size of padstones required and how much bearing is needed. Secondly you need to get in touch with your local authority and tell them what you propose doing. Don't be tempted to go down the cowboy route and not tell them, they will issue you with a certificate to certify that any work done has been done to the correct standards of workmanship - it will come back to haunt you if you decide to sell your house in the future. Knocking down a supporting wall is not for the faint-hearted and shouldn't be attempted if you don't know what you are doing. Basically you have to support any floor joists (if they are sitting on said wall) with the help of scaffold boards (to help spread the weight) held up by accrow props. Accrows have small holes at the top and bottom so you can screw/nail them to the board. Next you need to knock out a brick just above the height of the steel, this is so a strongbouy can slide in its place and this in turn sits on top of another accrow prop. Repeat this process at spacings of a maximum of 900mm depending on how sound the wall is above. When all this has been done it is safe to knock out the wall below. The RSJ can be offered into place and jacked up with the help of more accrows. It is important to get the RSJ as tight up to the supporting wall as possible otherwise you will have movement. To achieve a tight fit slate can be packed in to take any excess play. Padstones can be bedded up underneath the RSJ. Again they must be tight up and again packed with slate. Upon doing all this arrange for the building inspector to do a site visit and voila - job's a good un! it is important to let the padstones go off sufficiently before finally removing the props. the props and strongbouys above the steel can be removed as you work from one end packing with the slate. Sorry if I've bored you - hope it helps Regards Graham