Internal load bearing wall

[sophiecentaur]

My house is a late Victorian terrace.
I plan to put in a loft extension and I want to get as much headroom up there as possible. Hence, I don't want the new joists to be any deeper than necessary. There is a single skin load bearing wall between back and front rooms. This supports the bedroom ceilings. Is there any reason why I should not use this to support the middle of the new joists? The span between steels (running parallel to the roof ridge) would be nearly 6m, which would require meaty joists, I think. If I could use the mid point for support, life would be much easier and I would win at least 50mm in height - significant - and make the stairs easier, too.
I'd like to have some idea before approaching Building Control.

 

[lgbrickwork]

Dont see any problem if its supported directly below by another load bearing wall.

 

[emyr46]

My house is a late Victorian terrace.
I plan to put in a loft extension and I want to get as much headroom up there as possible. Hence, I don't want the new joists to be any deeper than necessary. There is a single skin load bearing wall between back and front rooms. This supports the bedroom ceilings. Is there any reason why I should not use this to support the middle of the new joists? The span between steels (running parallel to the roof ridge) would be nearly 6m, which would require meaty joists, I think. If I could use the mid point for support, life would be much easier and I would win at least 50mm in height - significant - and make the stairs easier, too.
I'd like to have some idea before approaching Building Control.[/quote
have an idea by looking at historrical posts on here

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Your structural engineer would have surely used this as support if he could, if not then BC will require your SE to check it is adequate.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Thank you for the responses so far, chaps.

I do not, as yet, have an SE because the fewer questions I have to ask him and the fewer times I need to go through the loop, the cheaper it will be for me.

In principle, I can't see any problem as the wall goes right down to the ground and already supports the ceiling fine. I suppose I could look at the mortar and bricks to check they are the same as in the other walls.

It does bring me to a further point and that is the question of why the new joists which will support the floor cannot dip below the tops of the existing joists which the bedroom ceilings hang from. (Assuming there is room for sufficient fire retardant in between, of course.) Every few cm of height gained represent an equal increase in full height width for the loft room. (41 degree roof slope)