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- 13 Sep 2015
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Hi,
We've taken down our kitchen ceiling and think we've found the root cause of something.
Our house is Edwardian. Resting on the wall above our kitchen doorway is these two steels. They're supporting a single skin, single storey, internal brick wall above (about 4m long x 2.4m high).
For what it's worth, we have the original plans for the house. These, combined with the way the brickwork has been packed above them, leads me to believe the steels are original to the construction of the house (leastways, there has always been a first floor wall without a ground floor wall beneath it here).
The wall they are sat on above the kitchen door frame is also single skin brick. The steels span 4m and are bedded into the external wall of the house at the other end. No idea of length of bearing at that end.
The door frame in the picture is distorted, the header is sagging and the plaster patch to the left of the picture has cracked - the crack gets wider up the wall and goes through to the other side. It continues to crack even if we remove and refill the plaster.
To cut a long story short, I think the original timber lintel above the door frame is failing to maintain the weight of these beams, so that the wall is pushing down on the door frame.
The only case against this is that there is no sign of cracking to suggest a slightly dropped wall upstairs.
Anyway: Does this seem a plausible explanation of what I'm seeing?
If it is, am I in:
(1) Meh, it's just cosmetic and it's been there 110 years so probably not moving that much any more. Just open up the cracked area, hard pack the brick joints, mesh over it all and replaster?
(2) Buy a standard brick width reinforced concrete lintel (say about a metre long), acro stuff, chop out some bricks above the door frame, add lintel, tidy up as per (1)?
(3) Hmm, looks like a job for a structural engineer and some proper calculations?
Many thanks
James
We've taken down our kitchen ceiling and think we've found the root cause of something.
Our house is Edwardian. Resting on the wall above our kitchen doorway is these two steels. They're supporting a single skin, single storey, internal brick wall above (about 4m long x 2.4m high).
For what it's worth, we have the original plans for the house. These, combined with the way the brickwork has been packed above them, leads me to believe the steels are original to the construction of the house (leastways, there has always been a first floor wall without a ground floor wall beneath it here).
The wall they are sat on above the kitchen door frame is also single skin brick. The steels span 4m and are bedded into the external wall of the house at the other end. No idea of length of bearing at that end.
The door frame in the picture is distorted, the header is sagging and the plaster patch to the left of the picture has cracked - the crack gets wider up the wall and goes through to the other side. It continues to crack even if we remove and refill the plaster.
To cut a long story short, I think the original timber lintel above the door frame is failing to maintain the weight of these beams, so that the wall is pushing down on the door frame.
The only case against this is that there is no sign of cracking to suggest a slightly dropped wall upstairs.
Anyway: Does this seem a plausible explanation of what I'm seeing?
If it is, am I in:
(1) Meh, it's just cosmetic and it's been there 110 years so probably not moving that much any more. Just open up the cracked area, hard pack the brick joints, mesh over it all and replaster?
(2) Buy a standard brick width reinforced concrete lintel (say about a metre long), acro stuff, chop out some bricks above the door frame, add lintel, tidy up as per (1)?
(3) Hmm, looks like a job for a structural engineer and some proper calculations?
Many thanks
James