Steels bearing on wall above door frame

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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


Steels.jpg
 
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The push from those beams spreads out at about 45 degrees. By the time it gets as low as the door casing the weight will be distributed to the sides.

However, if some over-zealous plumber decided to chase in a pipe (deep into the bricks) or some such and wrecked the integrity of the masonry, it could have an effect.
 
The push from those beams spreads out at about 45 degrees. By the time it gets as low as the door casing the weight will be distributed to the sides.
No its not distributed to the sides, its directly loading the the area of door frame and a bit either side too.
 
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The basic assumption is that all the brickwork in the triangle drawn upwards at 45 deg. from the end of the bearings of the lintel is carried by the lintel.
If there is any further applied load within a 60 deg. triangle drawn upwards from the ends of the lintel bearings, approximately 50% of that additional load is regarded as carried by the lintel (this would include the reaction from the steel beams).
As there appears to be a crack running down the side of the door, my guess would be that the support to the lintel itself is also suspect.
 
OP,
working on the side of the wall shown in the photo:

why not first remove, hack off, a panel of plasterwork above the door and going about 300mm beyond the cracks. remove all plaster that covers the existing lintel.
rule the panel off as square as possible - it makes replastering easier.
you will then see any significant signs or nothing in particular. Post pics.
it probably calls for inserting a Strongboy a couple of courses above the existing lintel.
and then replacing the lintel after advice.

its possible that the architrave will have to be taken off and pinned back later. cut it paint free and be careful with it.

whats happening on the other side of the wall and in the room above - any pics?
 
Hi,

Thanks for all of the replies above.

(1) Whatever the rights and wrongs of the '45 degree spread of the load', it's a bit of a moot point. The beams are steels are roughly central above the door frame and that's roughly a square area of brickwork above the door frame too. So, one way or the other, the lintel in the door frame is pretty much taking the load?
(2) @tony1851 - the bearing for the steels is wood (at each end) and I guess the bearing for the wooden lintel that is (almost certainly above the door) is going to be brick.

Having thought some more:

If you look to the far left of the photo you can see two cracks - one with the new plaster and one toward the top of the white wall to the left of the main crack. If you squint, the two joists to the far left are closer together than the usual … There's a reason for that. There used to be a wall running down between those two joists (yes **not** aligned with the steels, about 50 cm further over). So, the two cracks you can see are probably to either side of where that wall was.

The wall that followed the joists was removed in 1952.

Here's the rub: The wall you can see originally finished at the left hand small crack (the one in the white paintwork, finishing under a joist) - so the bit of that wall that's carrying on out to the left of the photo, is 1950s.

This continued 1950s wall then ends at an external wall where it has been braced (presumably in the 50s) to it with large steel straps.

So, I think this opens up 3 possibilities:
(1) The steels are bearing down on the door frame as I first suspected.
(2) Crappy bonding between the new wall and the old causes the cracks - but why the deformed door frame?
(3) This is now all strapped to the external wall - could this be pulling outwards a little (looks as plumb as you'd expect it to be, but who knows)?

Anyway, long post that is probably about as easy to fathom as a post in Martian. The upshot of it all is: Structural engineer called. Will update you all on what happens next!

Thanks

James
 

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