Hello,
We are currently renovating a early 1900s house in South Wales for us to move into.
The house came with a tiny kitchen extension and we'd asked our builder to remove the dividing wall (which previously just had a wide door opening) between this and the dining room to allow us to create a larger kitchen/dining room.
We'd hoped (as we have thick walls) to be able to install a steel without having to leave a pillar on either side.
The structural engineer's calculations suggested this would be fine - but now the builder has come to start work he has discovered that the original builder never tied the new extension into the original house walls.
The builder and SE advice is to leave a pillar approximately 1 foot square on one side of the new room to support the steel.
They seemed to be of the impression this would work around the issue.
I'm pretty happy that the builder and SE know their trades - but my other half then asked me what the implications of the extension not being tied in might be beyond this.... the extension has been there for ~60 years so I'm assuming it's unlikely to have any massive new issues?
I will, of course, ask the builder this but typically he's now on holiday for a week, my other half is 6 months pregnant and I'm trying to reassure her without knowing what I'm talking about...
Should the need for this pillar for the steel to sit on be the worst of our worries (at least regarding the lack of being tied in...)?
Thanks,
Steve
We are currently renovating a early 1900s house in South Wales for us to move into.
The house came with a tiny kitchen extension and we'd asked our builder to remove the dividing wall (which previously just had a wide door opening) between this and the dining room to allow us to create a larger kitchen/dining room.
We'd hoped (as we have thick walls) to be able to install a steel without having to leave a pillar on either side.
The structural engineer's calculations suggested this would be fine - but now the builder has come to start work he has discovered that the original builder never tied the new extension into the original house walls.
The builder and SE advice is to leave a pillar approximately 1 foot square on one side of the new room to support the steel.
They seemed to be of the impression this would work around the issue.
I'm pretty happy that the builder and SE know their trades - but my other half then asked me what the implications of the extension not being tied in might be beyond this.... the extension has been there for ~60 years so I'm assuming it's unlikely to have any massive new issues?
I will, of course, ask the builder this but typically he's now on holiday for a week, my other half is 6 months pregnant and I'm trying to reassure her without knowing what I'm talking about...
Should the need for this pillar for the steel to sit on be the worst of our worries (at least regarding the lack of being tied in...)?
Thanks,
Steve
