Door cavity reveal, bridged, not closed

[martysmarty]

Right so, i have been to local merchants, they dont stock any 150x65 size intels for my size brick work. Closest is 140x100. I can get a 65x100 beam but would that be a suitable swap? There would be 3 rows of bricks above to add to its strength.

Edit: im a t**t and my blocks are 100mm.

Back on track. 140x100 it is.

 

[martysmarty]

Progress

Today we ripped the old top row of bricks that was above the living room door. Tjis beam just lifted out, it was not pinned on the other after all.

Didnt lose any bricks and after much debate on if i had enough support it went well.

I removed all mortard with a 8mm drill as i didnt want to be banging away at it.

Packed the lintel and jacked it up, suction helped a lot. Then packed the ends, got about 130mm each end now. I had to put a brick packer at on end because mortar would of been too thick. So it sits on mortar-packer-mortar.

 

[martysmarty]

Mortar has set nice. Going to leave it supported for another day then fill in where the needles are.

I lost quite a bit of cwi from above. Cant tell how much. Seems to have dropped down so i will close it off and i have been thinking of having it refilled properly again. Depending on cost that is. But thats for another timen

Thanks guys for all your help. More pics to come later.

 

[martysmarty]

So today i started tackling the bridged cavity reveal. i was amazed how much rubble was in there. i have managed to get pretty much most of it
out but there seems to be a lump of either cement or mortar in the cavity. i also cant quite work out how the bottom bricks are supposed to end.

i know my DPC is slate, and that the slate on the outside can be seen, and is situated just under the row of bricks under the door sill. would
the inside skin/wall have a seperate slate DPC at a different level, or would it share the same slate at the same height?

Just trying to work out the hack thats been done. it is my understanding outer DPC is higher than the inside level?

i have attached some edited pictures.

Picture 1 shows the upvc door sat on a bed of bricks that can just been seen. these are about 1" higher than the floor, how should this
have been done? i know at a later date i plan to tile the floor so i will either hanve to self level this floor and have a step into the living room,
or fix it asap.

picture 2 shows the concrete "slope" from the door to the floor.

picture 3 shows some of the cavity cleared

picture 4 shows some odd concrete sitting in there

picture 5 and 6 shows the lumps of cement/mortar

This house will but fully refurbed as i am going along. i am thinking that as i go along, maybe popping a few bricks out at DPC level to clear
the cavitys of crap. hopefully i am not doing a load of unnecessary work.

 

[martysmarty]

well i just grew a pair and went for it. 2 full henry bags of rubble! not including all the big bits the hoover couldnt get up.

I can actually see the slate now on the outside skin and took the sand, rubble, mortar and god know what else below the slate line.
i can't get over how much was inside!

i would like to ask the question if more of this should be taking/cleared lower while i can get in at this end. my living room floor joists
are sitting at the same height as whats left inside the cavity (i think anyway!). will this not "wick" across still to my inner skin? i am roughly an inch
below outside DPC slate so far. (were still talking inside the cavity).

That concrete slope i was talking about i think has been poured into the cavity, probably a couple row of bricks removed for the door, then the slope added to get it to the floor level. pictures added in the correct progress order.

 

[martysmarty]

Bricks removed, cut down and re-seated.

 

[bobasd]

well done. you've safely done quite a bit.

leave the sloping threshold until you replace the door/frame.


nock off an hack out all those lumps of mortar an snots, an rake out the cavity below the level of the joist seats.
you can, as you suggest, go as far around the house doing this, cleaning out the cavity, as you think necessary.

you should examine an probe all your joist tails in the brickseat pockets.
as i previous asked you - show photos of the outside wall(s) esp. at ground level?

leave your ceilings open until you've finished an tested all your bathroom plumbing.

 

[bobasd]

i've just edited my last post after seeing your last post.
from what i can make out from the new photos - you've now got a jog in the reveal brickwork.
why you've done it that way i dont now but its ther now.

 

[martysmarty]

Bobasd, thanks mate.

Sorry i missed your post for a dpc outside picture. Will sort that tomorrow unless i have some on here already.

The dpc was bridged on the right hand side of the house, it was at least a brick under. Dug this out the start of the year and its been left since.

Front of house the dpc is very close to ground level. I think about 1 brick away. It has been stihl cut but i have yet to dig this.

The living room floor will be up start of the year, so i will go around the floor line and pop some bricks out. Soon as i have put this hallway back and tidy'd the electric box il be onto it.

Pics to follow.

 

[martysmarty]

i've just edited my last post after seeing your last post.
from what i can make out from the new photos - you've now got a jog in the reveal brickwork.
why you've done it that way i dont now but its ther now.

Whats a jog??

 

[bobasd]

the jog is the little half brick set-back recess at the reveal outside corner.

 

[martysmarty]

Hmm sorry to be thick here. Are you saying i shouldnt have bothered taking out those bricks that returned back into the cavity?

Sorry for my lack of knoledge here.

If so i removed them to help keep the cavity line straight to close it later.

 

[martysmarty]

so, heres some pictures.

We was advised to dig down past the dpc when we had our boiler fitted, the proor bloke nearly died of effort when boring the holes out because the walls were so wet. we left it to dry out and the plan was to re-point it before laying SWA and finally pebble filling. The front has been cut but not
dug yet, been so busy with other things on the house.

the front air brick is too close to ground level, thats one thing i know. one thing i noticed this morning taking pics, the guttering pipe from the roof
comes down onto my porch, i have always considered this normal, loads are done like it but looking the slope of the tiles, it could be running under the
flashing, penetrating into the wall. the porch is a terrible build and had leaks previously. previous owners must have had the flashing re-done as it looks
recent.

other thing seeing as you asked for pictures, your keen to know whats going on outside so i might as well as about the "pointing" or lack of thats been done. previous owners have plastered the DPC line with cement, i fear it hiding spalled brick, sould it be removed and is there anything i can do to
tidy it up?

 

[bobasd]

the flashing is wrong - you should have lead soakers an stepped cover flashin for plain tiles.
see "fixmyroof" videos on utube.
the rainwater pipe could be clipped to the wall an extended down past the face of the building.

the remains of a sand an cement plinth should be removed from the lower brickwork.

not a lot you can do about the porch an vestibule.

you've done what you can with the ground levels. but the cut is dangerous for children.

except for one half covered (or a 9"x3") air brick i dont see any other air bricks for ventilatin the suspended floors? maybe the plinth is blindin them?

 

[martysmarty]

Hi bobasd, it may well be. I know next door had some vents fitted but they were fitted below the dpc as they had big damp issues.

From what i know though, theres only one vent as ours is in the same location.

Fair point about the cut! Hadnt thought about it that way.

As for the porch, i will add it to the list and get it sorted asap. I had a feeling it looked wrong today when i seen the damp area of the tiles.

Should the slate line be visible on the outside? Houses of this age i always see them pointed over