Rafter support

[dandeano]

His guys just been to look at my mums loft and noticed a few concerns.

So it's an end terraced house with a single external skin wall in the loft. The two rafters (or are they pearlings)run through a wall to next doors house. Then supported in the middle with a long joist then at the other end is resting on two brick pillars. Now these pillars are not tied into the single brick wall and look to be falling down. What supports can I fix to support these to make them secure.

2nd problem there is two gallow brackets supporting a chimney breast that goes into two rooms. Now looking at these I believe they have been put in the wrong way round as seen in the pics which I believe causes the chimney to pull in towards house. This is on the external wall. So if we can remove chimney not too much of an issue. If we can't then what is the best option as this wall is single skin, could I remove the diagonal bricks up to horizontal level and refit gallow brackets here with a lintel on top.

Thanks for any help guys

 

[tony1851]

Agree it looks a bit precarious if that is a single-skin (4") thick wall - is that a ledge where the wall thickens out below?
The brackets are not necessarily wrongly installed; whichever way they were put in, the mass of the chimneys puts a considerable eccentric load on the thin wall. Might be best considering removing the whole chimney?

 

[John D v2.0]

Seems an odd way to use the brackets, any load on them would tend to pull the fixings out of the wall. There's a reason they're normally the other way.
As said above I'd agree removing is the best option. But if it's not actually moved maybe best to leave alone.
With the purlins, ideally they if they connect to next door you should fill the gaps with mortar. If the brickwork is separating from the actual wall you could tie it in with some resin and a couple of threaded bars.

 

[dandeano]

Thanks for replies, yes I plan to remove the whole of the chimney if possible to solve that problem but just leave diagonal bricks in place that come out of the external brick wall (behold the ones you can see) in regards to the purlin's resting on what I would class as a brick pier to the left and right of chimney I'm unsure of these as that joist does not attach to single wall at all and the pillar looks to be just floating .

If you are talking about where the bricks come out along the bottom then this is were it is a double wall below
Just unsure really what I can put in to support the ends of those purlin. I guess a v shaped brace from either side to the middle supporting wall?

 

[Doggit]

I'm going to start off by saying that I reckon you need someone experienced on site to look at this, (and possibly a structural engineer), as somones messed around with the chimneys, (so altering the loadings on the outside wall) and if the piers are crumbling, then you may even need a steel beam going across the back wall to then support the purlins, and the chimneys.

I notice that you have a flue liner in the RH chimney, so that needs to be taken into consideration if you look to remove the chimneys.

Okay, issue no 1. Unless you can securly support the purlins and take the pier down to rebuid it, then I suspect the best method would be to carfully drill a couple of holes in the 2nd brick down, and then inset a couple of stainless steel rods, and use chemical resin to secure the bricks to the the outside wall.

As to the gallows brackets; a chimney is normally tied into the outside wall as they are both getting built, so a gallows bracket (whichever way it goes up) doesn't support the chimney, it just stops the lowest course of bricks falling down, which would then allow the net course to drop etc etc.. In your case, the chimneys obviously been built after the wall was, but looking at the LH part of the chimney, they may have started to tie it in as they got towards the top, and that would give the chimney more stability as it exists from the roof line.

 

[dandeano]

Thanks , yeah I'm going to get someone to take a look at it but myself and brother hopefully can do the work as my mother has little to no funds available.

Going to get a friend to remove chimney stack and tile section of roof. Then we will remove the remaining inside chimney stack leaving the bricks that are tied in , in place.
This does need sorting as the bricks look to be leaning in from the middle now and I don't want them coming through the roof below.

As for the piers , I hadn't thought fully about the rods, so great idea. Will seemail what a specialist says as my did skills are up to task but my structural knowledge isn't. Was hoping I could have put a 8x2 joist below and strut up to it for support. Going to have a good look at the piers tomorrow to see what's below them and to figure out why they was never tied into the wall.

Thanks again guys will update tomorrow