I live on the ground floor of a two-storey blocks of units and I want to create an 800mm (width) x 1000mm (height) hatch in an internal wall between the kitchen and living room. I assume the wall is bearing some load so I plan to install an RSJ above the opening but I don't know how to calculate the load in order to determine the size of RSJ required. I do know that the wall is 140mm thick (in total - I haven't chipped away the plaster to find the width of the brickwork yet), sits between two exterior walls 2230mm from one and 4400mm from the other and that the ceiling is a reinforced concrete slab throughout. The opening would be positioned 900mm from a door opening and 740mm from the wall closure on the opposite side.
I'm aware the the information is scant here but given that the opening I'm planing to make is relatively small, do I need to arrive at an exact load calculation to determine which size RSJ to use? It appears that the wall could just about accomodate the dimensions of a 248mm Height x 124mm Width (25.4kg/m) RSJ so I could put this in assuming that this will provide more than enough support? This seems huge for such a small opening so perhaps I can go with something smaller? Or perhaps it is simply impossible to determine without a site inspection?
Any thoughts greatly appreciated...
Cheers,
Stew
I'm aware the the information is scant here but given that the opening I'm planing to make is relatively small, do I need to arrive at an exact load calculation to determine which size RSJ to use? It appears that the wall could just about accomodate the dimensions of a 248mm Height x 124mm Width (25.4kg/m) RSJ so I could put this in assuming that this will provide more than enough support? This seems huge for such a small opening so perhaps I can go with something smaller? Or perhaps it is simply impossible to determine without a site inspection?
Any thoughts greatly appreciated...
Cheers,
Stew
