Settlement from an rsj?

[Charlaver22]

Hello, I’m in the process of purchasing a house while is almost 100 years old. About 40 years ago they removed a wall which was a chimney breast between the kitchen and a dining space. The vendor tells me she remembers them putting me an rsj in but there are some bulges in the wall above the rsj and the floor in the bedroom above has dipped.

Im wondering if it is common for there to be some settling like this over and RSJ over such a long time frame or whether the calculations could have been wrong.

I have uploaded a photo of the cracking under the plaster and the photo of the area to see the room. Thank you in advance!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

40 years ago, calculations? I admire your optimisim!

 

[Charlaver22]

Would there not have been calculations to put a beam in at this time? I really have no industry knowledge or know anything about older houses.

They say they put a beam in perhaps there isn’t one or it’s insufficient then!

 

[Mottie]

We had an RSJ fitted in our current house over 20 years ago when we made a kitchen diner. No calcs, just a sucking of teeth and a guesstimate on the size as far as I can recall. The house is still standing. Our previous house had two wooden joists holding an upstairs wall up when that was made into a through lounge and that’s still standing. It was built in 1899. The joists were already there when we bought it in 1984 and if I remember correctly, several of the bedroom floor joists that rested on those joists had to be replaced because of woodworm!

 

[^woody^]

If after 40 years the RSJ is still in the ceiling and not on the ground floor, then you can probably assume its OK.

The issues are more likely to relate to the quality of installation, and whether they are ongoing issues or just cosmetic from 40 years ago is down to your surveyor to determine.