What does it cost to remove a load-bearing wall in Chicago?

What national cost guides report

Cost guides describe the wall itself: shoring, demolition, a beam and posts, and sometimes the patching around them. Their ranges are wide because a short opening under ceiling joists is a different job from a long span that carries a second floor.

• Angi: cost to remove a load-bearing wall
• HomeAdvisor: remove a load-bearing wall
• Fixr: wall removal cost
• HomeGuide: cost to remove a wall

The engineer and the beam

A load-bearing wall is replaced by something that carries the same load: a beam across the opening, posts at each end and a continuous path for that load down to the foundation. A structural engineer sizes those pieces. Angi puts an engineer's inspection of a load-bearing wall at about $350 to $500, and HomeGuide puts a structural analysis at $250 to $1,000, or $3,000 and more when it includes beam calculations and plans. HomeGuide lists installed beams at about $50 to $200 per foot for LVL and $100 to $400 per foot for steel.

Four things push the structural cost up: a longer span, a second floor or a roof bearing on the wall, posts that land where there is no footing below, and a flush beam hidden in the ceiling, which costs more than a dropped beam because the joists have to be hung from it.

The Chicago permit

Removing a load-bearing wall is structural work, so in Chicago it does not qualify for the Express Permit Program. It needs a plan-based permit through Standard Plan Review or the Self-Certification program, with drawings prepared by an Illinois-licensed architect or structural engineer. The owner applies, and the City-licensed general contractor who will do the work is named on the application.

Once the drawings are in, the clock depends on the route. The City says self-certified permits are typically issued within 10 business days after zoning approval when contractor licenses are valid and the property has no violations. For plan review, the Department of Buildings reported 72 days from application to permit on September 14, 2026, including 43 days with applicants answering comments. A non-refundable $600 deposit is due with a plan-based application, and the fee for a kitchen-sized opening usually lands near the minimum of about $600.

• How Chicago's permit routes and fees workExpress Permit, plan review, Self-Certification and landmarks.
• Self-Certification Permit ProgramCity of Chicago Department of Buildings.
• Time to permitThe Department of Buildings' current processing figure.

What Chicago buildings add

• Brick bungalows and two-flats: both are brick buildings with narrow, stacked floor plans, so an engineer confirms what a central wall carries before an opening is drawn, and any masonry that has to come out costs far more to remove than a framed partition.
• Basements: posts that land where no footing exists need new footings, and work below the floor such as underpinning is structural work in its own right.
• What runs inside the wall: wiring, supply and drain lines and ducts are rerouted before the wall comes out, and in an older house they are often older than the kitchen.
• Condominiums: an opening in a concrete building is decided by the structure and the association before the design, and a new floor opening larger than one square foot is structural work. In a post-tensioned building the drawings come first, because tensioned cables run through the slabs.

Where the wall sits in a kitchen budget

When the opening is part of a kitchen remodel, the wall itself is rarely the largest line. Once it is gone, the floors of two rooms meet, the ceilings have to be resolved, the storage the wall held is replaced and the kitchen is usually rebuilt to a new plan. That is why a kitchen that opens up or expands is the largest of the three scopes on our Investment page, typically $125,000 and up before selections, compared with $75,000 to $125,000 for a kitchen that changes its layout within its walls.

Structural work adds time as well: typically two to four weeks for engineering, permit review and framing, so a kitchen with an opened wall usually takes ten to fourteen weeks to build once construction starts.

• Open concept remodelingPartial openings, full removal and the rooms on both sides.
• What a kitchen remodel costs in ChicagoThe three planning ranges and the eleven cost factors.
• How long a kitchen remodel takesWhere engineering and permits sit in the schedule.

Openings that cost less

• A wider cased opening with a header, which keeps most of the wall, its cabinets and the proportions of an older house.
• A half wall with a counter, which opens the view and still hides the sink from the table.
• Removing a partition that carries no load, which in Chicago can often use the Express Permit Program's nonstructural interior alteration worktype, within its limits.
• Keeping the wall and connecting the rooms with light, a continuous floor and a cleaner doorway.

How we plan an opening

At the in-home visit we look at which way the joists run, what sits above the wall and below it in the basement, and what runs inside it. When the wall carries load, a structural engineer sizes the beam and posts, the drawings go through the City's plan-based permit process and demolition waits until the permit is in hand. The proposal shows the structural work as its own line, so you can see what the opening costs apart from the kitchen.

• How our process worksInquiry, in-home visit, proposal and build.
• Kitchen design and layoutPlanning the combined room once the wall is gone.