RSJ in loft - advice please on how to lay it

[JonHeath]

Hi all,

I have a seperate bathroom and WC upstairs, seperated by a brick wall. I am going to remove this wall so I can have the WC in the bathroom.

In the loft there is a small brick stack on this wall, going up to and supporting part of the roof.

There are 5 or 6 of these stacks in total in the loft, all supporting the roof.

Ironically the stack I want to remove isn't actually supporting the roof anymore and there is a 5mm gap between the top of the stack and the roof beam its supposed to be supporting. I can actually wobble the stack in question quite freely! There are two other stacks near which do support the roof.

Anyway I've had my local Building Control man around before I realised the stack wasn't even doing anything. So I'm going to do this properly and put the RSJ in, and rebuild the stack on top of the steel.

I've already got the steel in the loft, cut for the job. (My old mans a sparky and they cut it to size for him on a job he was on). The BC officer has seen the steel and is happy with it. (In reality it's probably overspec for the job in question).

The steel will sit on the inner brick of an external wall (the wall is double brick), and the other end (its about 2.5m in length) will sit on a single brick internal wall.

My question relates to installing the steel:

My BC officer mentioned installing it on two layers of blue brick. However due to other woodern beams present in the loft (which prevent me just building up) this would involve going 1 brick down into the existing wall, which would mean patching up more than I want to in the rooms underneath. Am I able to use padstones which would only be one brick deep instead of using blue bricks?

Also what is the best way to bed the padstone or blue brick? Just mortar them in then lift the steel on top once the mortar is set?

Thanks
Jon

 

[big-all]

building control is the person you have to please best aimed at them

 

[joe-90]

Most people I know regret taking that wall out. Why do you want to do it?

 

[JonHeath]

The main reason is no sink in the WC, so you have to open the WC door, then open the bathroom door to wash your hands. Not very hygenic but more importantly to me, its a hassle. Why wouldn't you want it all in one room? It also means I can re-design the bathroom, once I get the cash to put a new one in Maybe a freestanding bath etc. The current wall limits the bathroom setup.

I should have been a bit clearer on the blue brick / Padstone question. I'm just looking for a bit of advice to go back to Building Control with. I will then get their approval before doing anything. I guess I want to know if Padstone (or something else) at one brick thickness, can be the equivalent of laying onto two layers of blue brick.

Cheers

 

[themiddleagedun]

Is there not a timber wallplate in the way?

Use a 65mm concrete lintel as your padstone cut to fit between the ceiling joists.

If there's a wallplate you'll have to cut that out first.

 

[JonHeath]

There's certainly no timber wallplate on the internal wall. Not sure about the outside wall, I'll need to check it again. I don't think there is one.

Thanks for the lintel idea - sounds like a good one to me. I'll run that by the BC officer.

What about securing the RSJ to the concrete lintel? And building the brick stack on top of the RSJ to the roof? Just a strong mortar mix?

Thanks
Jon

 

[Deluks]

Could you not use the other 2 brick stacks and span a beam between them which hold up a post replacing the stack. It doesn't sound like it it doing much if the roof isn't touching it. (snow load could change this of course)

Could you deal with a nib in the room? Leaving a 150mm part of the existing wall in place, this could be built up above the ceiling joists and the steel could sit above the other supporting wall, no intrusion to room below, and no need to cut the exterior wallplate.

 

[themiddleagedun]

There's certainly no timber wallplate on the internal wall. Not sure about the outside wall, I'll need to check it again. I don't think there is one.

Thanks for the lintel idea - sounds like a good one to me. I'll run that by the BC officer.

What about securing the RSJ to the concrete lintel? And building the brick stack on top of the RSJ to the roof? Just a strong mortar mix?

Thanks
Jon[There's no need to bolt the steel to anything ..just sit it on the padstones. Then build a "triangle" of blockwork under your purlin . /quote]