Wall construction type

AndyBill · 25 Jul 2009

on a pre 1900 listed flat, walls are way thick (about 600mm or more at reveals) Rendered on the outside and plasterd inside,

would you imagine these walls to be brick or stone made?

would stone be rendered over the exterior?
seems a waste!

why were walls made so thick? was there an abundance of materials at this time?

cheers , any advice would be brill

freddiemercurystwin · 25 Jul 2009

Probably a skin of cra**y stone each side and the middle full of rubbish.

AndyBill · 25 Jul 2009

not 3 brick thick walls then?

AndyBill · 25 Jul 2009

maybe in a rat bond pattern?

freddiemercurystwin · 25 Jul 2009

AndyBill said:
not 3 brick thick walls then?

Anythings possible, that would be a bit of an overkill though, normally a solid brick wall is only 1 brick length wide (215). Can you look down at the top of the wall from inside the roof? http://www.pdoyle.net/content/view/79/91/

AndyBill · 25 Jul 2009

not in a ground floor flat no !

calvert · 25 Jul 2009

I live near your neck of the woods. When I took the render of my house it was all rough chopped stone inside and out, a bit rubbly but still laid, in between. 600 walls.

AndyBill · 25 Jul 2009

yeah thinking about it, would probably be a bit wasteful having brick walls that thick, unless its 2 skins of stretcher bond with 400mm cavity filled with rubble.

alittlerespect · 25 Jul 2009

Hi

Some building were constructed of inner leaf and outer leaf with cavity infill, as has been described, it may be rubble, but in some instances straw and other material were used.

As you have mentioned you have around a 2' thickness (metric wasn't around in those days!), its likely that you have an inner leaf and outer leaf of 1 brick thickness (9" + 9") + cavity (4") with plaster (1") and render (1") total this would just about account for the 2' thickness.

The thickness would also tend to depend on the height of the building, as the tendency would have been to have the lower levels constructed thicker in order to spread the load from the upper floors, the walls to the upper floors would have had a reduced thickness say 2 1/2brick walls + cavity.

There is another option, you may have an early cast iron steel frame building with brickwork either side.

Only way to find out for sure would be to remove some brickwork, but there again if you have no problems the best options would be to adapt the mentality of either 'let sleeping dogs lie!' or 'if it ain't broke why fix it!' why create problems for yourself!

Regards

stuart45 · 26 Jul 2009

freddymercurystwin said:
Probably a skin of cra**y stone each side and the middle full of rubbish.

That's a good description of my cottage.
Andy,
It depends on which area you live for the method of construction on walls.
The method described by Freddy was quite common in the West country as there is a good supply of stone here. Some places used solid brickwork,
and others used things like Cob, Clunch or Bungaroosh.
If it's for RDSAP and 20 inches or more record it as Limestone solid wall.

jeds · 28 Jul 2009

AndyBill said:
would stone be rendered over the exterior?
seems a waste!

Nearly all period stone walls were originally rendered. It's a purely 20th Century fad to leave them exposed. Even most medieaval castles were coated with lime wash. Quite often coloured with cabbage leaf or some red vegetable, which would have produced a lime green or bright pink finish.

legs-akimbo · 4 Aug 2009

The term for this type of wall construction as has been touched upon is "Rubble stone wall construction" and quite common

Nige F · 4 Aug 2009

jeds said:
AndyBill said:

would stone be rendered over the exterior?
seems a waste!

Click to expand...

Nearly all period stone walls were originally rendered. It's a purely 20th Century fad to leave them exposed. Even most medieaval castles were coated with lime wash. Quite often coloured with cabbage leaf or some red vegetable, which would have produced a lime green or bright pink finish.

I thought castles were decorated with vertical brown stripes.....Until I found what a Garderobe was

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Wall construction type

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