RSJ and supporting wall questions

[stevehuws]

Hi,

I've recently bought an old farmhouse, built circa 1880. It's of solid construction (or so my surveyor told me) but with the usual problems of rising damp and woodworm which we're currently sorting.

The house has 670mm/26" stone walls, with a centre 340mm/13" wall which runs parallel to the gable ends. The first floor joists run from this wall to the gable ends.

Our first project for the house is knocking down a dividing wall between the old parlour (room with a wooden floor) and the kitchen. The dividing wall is of stone construction, and does not have a wall directly above. There is a stud wall on the floor above, but this is about 600mm away.

Would I need an RSJ for this? I'll be getting a structural engineer in eventually, but I just like to hear opinions. Would padstones be needed, or will the stone wall be sufficient?

Our other idea is to open up the gable end wall where the kitchen is. There is already a window there (with probably a slate lintel) which we'd like to open up into a doorway about 3m in length. As stated above the wall is roughly 670mm/26" thick stone built. Can anyone give a ballpark figure on costs for this kind of job?

Thanks for your help,

steve

 

[Static]

Do the floor joists sit on the wall?

 

[stevehuws]

Do the floor joists sit on the wall?

As far as I know, yes. If the only aternatives are joist hangers, then I assume not as I don't know if they were about 130 years ago.

However, my intial assumption that the dividing wall was brick is incorrect, hacking away last night I discovered it was stone, so I no longer trust my assuptions (and I've edited the above accordingly).

I'll lift a floorboard tonight to take a look, and let you know.[/quote]

 

[Static]

Just checking if the wall your looking to remove is load bearing, if the joists above load the wall then either by directly sitting onto it or joist hangers then a beam would be the logical route assuming you can take the load to another ajoining wall or remainder of the original wall.. older properties are a bit more complicated as alot have little to no foundations so you may need to add some pad foundations as required

 

[stevehuws]

Just checking if the wall your looking to remove is load bearing

I'm certain it isn't. The joists run parallell to this wall, and there are no solid walls above it.

 

[Static]

Just checking if the wall your looking to remove is load bearing

I'm certain it isn't. The joists run parallell to this wall, and there are no solid walls above it.

Then you shouldnt need any supporting steelwork.. but could be a lateral wall.. doubtful tho

 

[stevehuws]

That's good to hear, although I'll still spend on a SE, just in case