Fixing timber wall plate to interior wall

[niceguydave]

Working off some plans put together by my SE, I'm about to start resin fixing the timber wall plate to the party wall.

The SE recommended that the bolt should be 100mm in the wall. The wall plate is 200mm deep, so this means that I'm looking at a bit more than 300mm (I'm going to add a bit more to attach the bolt afterwards)

Problem is... there really doesn't seem to be room to drill a 300mm deep hole - the roof sits directly above the wall plate.

Could anyone suggest an alternative? Place another wall plate underneath and bind the two plates together? I'm not whether this solution would be structurally sound.

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Eh? When you say 200 deep wall plate is this timber? Is this fixed to the face or top of a wall? Surely your engineer means a 200x50 wall plate or similar? Can you post a scan of the SE's detail?

 

[niceguydave]

Thanks for the response - a bit more detail on this.

I've attached the SE diagram. Note where the timber plate meets the party wall at the top right of the diagram. The diagram is in fact incorrect, since it shows the longer edge of the plate (200mm) flush to the wall. In reality, it's the shorter (50mm) edge which is flush to the wall. There's about a 60mm gap between the top of the plate and the underside of the roof.

You can see from the photo that the plate is currently supported by lying on cantilevered bricks.

Do you have any suggestions as to the best way to resin bolt the plate to the wall, bearing in mind the lack of space for inserting a 300mm bolt into the plate?

Photo of timber ridge plate

• niceguydave
• 31 Oct 2011
• 1

SE diagram

• niceguydave
• 31 Oct 2011
• 1

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Err, I might be being a bit thick, so you are saying how do you physically drill a hole in the wall to bolt the wall plate in as the gap between the wall and tiles is too small?I still don't understand why you think you need to drill a 300 deep hole?

 

[niceguydave]

Hi. Yes - that's pretty much it. One thing not correct was the depth of timber - it's actually 2 by 4 that's being used. So the wood is 100mm deep and the SE recommended a 100mm hole into masonry.

I'm just wondering about the best technique to get a 200mm drill bit into the space between the timber and the tiles.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Right so the wall plate is 100x50. The wall plate will be fixed to the wall with its 100 edge facing the wall. So your overall hole will be 150 deep, 50 through the wall plate and 100 into the wall (or probably a little deeper as M12 resin anchors are slightly deeper like 110mm). So drill holes through your wall plate when its on the ground at the right centres, hold this up against your wall and mark where the holes are in the wall. Then drill your 110mm deep holes in the wall. So your dill needs to be 150mm or something which is a normal masonry drill length. Now with that in mind how much room have you got?

 

[niceguydave]

That's right, the plate is 100x50 but it's the 50mm side which is flush to the wall.

Photo of timber ridge plate

• niceguydave
• 31 Oct 2011
• 1

Since the ridge plate is already fixed to the wall - you can see this from the picture above - it's not possible for me to remove this.

In a nutshell, I don't have the space to drill a ~200mm through this beam and into the wall - there's not enough room between the beam and the roof tiles.

In terms of a solution, what you seem to be suggesting matches my thoughts about how to deal with this issue - get some new 100x50 timber predrill it, predrill the holes in the walls and then bolt this new timber under the existing timber and then resin bolt to the wall. My concern is that I'll have added another 50mm of distance between the original beam and where it's anchored into the wall.

Does this make sense?

 

[Dhillon]

I understand what you are saying though I had to read your posts several times. In your original post you said the wall plate timber was 200x50 but you have since corrected this to say it is more like 100x50.

The SE requires you to drill through the 100mm wall plate and into the party wall at a depth of 100mm. So in total you need to drill 200mm. But the existing rafters and tiles are stopping you doing this, there is no room to get a drill in there.

My suggestion would be to remove roof tiles where you need to drill, slit the felt, drill and bolt. Or explain the situation to the SE and see if he can suggest an alternative like adding a timber below the existing wall plate, one where your drill will reach.

Question: Are you trying to improve an existing structure to meet building regulations? Is that why the SE has been brought in after it has all been built?

 

[niceguydave]

Dhillon - thanks for the tip. In answer to your question, the house is Victorian , almost 120 years old. I don't think there _were_ building regs back then

Question: Are you trying to improve an existing structure to meet building regulations? Is that why the SE has been brought in after it has all been built?