removing one leaf of cavity

[xaerocool49]

Dear community

We have been given permission to do a 2 story side extension on a semi detached house, on the upstairs they will not let us go full width as they said it creates a terracing effect if all the houses are connected at the top. It has to be semi detached. This leaves a very small upstairs room of 7ft internal.

The guy that did the plans and the structural guy are 2 different people.

The current side of the house is a cavity wall. The new roof of the the new extension will require the existing hip of the new house to be removed. Then the new extension will have a new hip end roof to match the existing elevations.

Once the side extension is done, the external side cavity wall will be inside the house.

When the new tiled roof for the side extension is built the old existing hip will be removed.

Now this is where the confusion comes in.

The architect said once the old hip is removed then the outer leaf (inner wall to the extension) will be completely bare on top. There will be no weight on this wall, you'll be able to see all the bricks on top and you will see there is nothing on there. He said to remove the leaf, which will give about 7 inches of more space because it's a 4inch brick and appears to be a 3 inch cavity. I went into the attic and I agree, there will be nothing on that wall at all once it's all done.

The problem is the SE said that it can't be removed, but i'm struggling with the logic.

If i leave a pillar/nib on each end near the front of the house and the back of the house why can't i remove this wall, he said it's because it's 2 storey.

Makes no sense, the wall separating the front and back living rooms and the bedrooms are 2 storey and the the downstairs wall has been removed and it is a through lounge. That one is a load bearing wall which has a RSJ, above that in the attic it is also load bearing.

So my question is, do a I need a new SE? or is this correct? I know 7 inches doesn't sound like a lot but it's significant when the room is only 7ft, you can get a bed in the other way and still waddle past it.

Many thanks

J.

 

[stevie888]

I did just this at home 30 years ago. BCO thought I was daft but like you I wanted the 6".

I also wanted to salvage the bricks for re-use which worked well.

Your SE may be worried about. buttressingthough on the face of it that doesn't seem an issue from your description: why not just ask? In this siyuation many peeps are taking the whole wall out

 

[noseall]

Your SE may be worried about. buttressingthough

And self-arching....

the downstairs wall has been removed and it is a through lounge.

 

[xaerocool49]

@noseall Thank you

I think i was ambiguous

The wall that has the downstairs removed is a different wall not the wall i want to take the leaf out on.

The wall i want to remove the leaf from us currently a 2 story cavity wall running along the side of the house. It will just have a door way cut in it upstairs in roughly the middle at the top of the landing. Downstairs it will have another doorway cut in it but this door way will be about 3 meters away from the upstairs doorway so they won't be above each other.

@stevie888 Thank you, did you remove the upstairs and downstairs? I assume 30 years on no issues?

I will ask about buttrestingthough but it doesn't sound like a huge issue....

 

[robinbanks]

"A picture is worth a thousand words".

Show us the plans

 

[stevie888]

OP I took down the whole outer leaf right down to toothing out for the new walls (old school!).

Just over 50% of the inner skin also went to form through rooms and so did the gable.

30 years and nary an issue, though interestingly whilst the front elevation was invisible from the getgo, the rear join is still visible due to the difference in weathering of the bricks between north and south (exg bricks were west facing and match south) dead on

 

[^woody^]

This is a common thing to do.

It can depend on what loads remain from the old roof rafters, once the new extension roof is formed. But generally the single leaf can take the loads and is stabilised by the new extension ceiling joists

 

[xaerocool49]

Hi all, @^woody^

Thank you very much,

Sorry for not responding before. The project got paused do to some family health issues, I had a follow up question, on the downstairs leaf there is the staircase hanging off one leaf, the original house side. If you remove the outer leaf here wouldn't the bolts or something be sticking out? 1930's semi.

Many thanks

J.