My parents house, and the houses around them, were built the same, with downstairs bathrooms dividing the back of the house in half. The dividing walls have mostly been removed to make bigger kitchens. Above the dividing wall is a thermalite wall upstairs, but offset by about 18-24 inches so the downstairs wall provided no support to the upstairs one, as the joists run parallel to both.
Their neighbour has the kitchen ceiling down in the back of the house, due to major extension and renovation works. The downstairs wall is gone.
They have discovered that the upstairs wall is built onto the floorboards BETWEEN two joists! The joists either side have sunk slightly. They both rest at one end above a doorway. The doorway has a wooden lintel above it. So basically one end of this thermalite wall rests on a 3 inch high wooden lintel! The lintel is sagging.
Their plan is to remove the wall upstairs, jack up the joists and pad out above the doorway. Then rebuilt a stud partition upstairs. Either this or simply jack up the joists as it is and leave the wall in situ. The aim is to get a perfectly flat ceiling, which this wall is preventing.
But my question is, is this really how they used to build houses in the 50's??? Were there no building controls or set standards or inspections back then? I would imagine these houses were quite innovative when built - thermalite and plasterboard would have been new tech back then. Perhaps the inventor of thermalite claimed it was so light it could be thrown up anywhere? Granted its been there for 60 years, but its certainly not what I'd call robust. Is this sort of stuff normal?
These houses also have another thermalite wall running perpendicular to the joists upstairs, offset from another downstairs wall by 2ft6. But here I suspect the joists provide support to the wall.
Their neighbour has the kitchen ceiling down in the back of the house, due to major extension and renovation works. The downstairs wall is gone.
They have discovered that the upstairs wall is built onto the floorboards BETWEEN two joists! The joists either side have sunk slightly. They both rest at one end above a doorway. The doorway has a wooden lintel above it. So basically one end of this thermalite wall rests on a 3 inch high wooden lintel! The lintel is sagging.
Their plan is to remove the wall upstairs, jack up the joists and pad out above the doorway. Then rebuilt a stud partition upstairs. Either this or simply jack up the joists as it is and leave the wall in situ. The aim is to get a perfectly flat ceiling, which this wall is preventing.
But my question is, is this really how they used to build houses in the 50's??? Were there no building controls or set standards or inspections back then? I would imagine these houses were quite innovative when built - thermalite and plasterboard would have been new tech back then. Perhaps the inventor of thermalite claimed it was so light it could be thrown up anywhere? Granted its been there for 60 years, but its certainly not what I'd call robust. Is this sort of stuff normal?
These houses also have another thermalite wall running perpendicular to the joists upstairs, offset from another downstairs wall by 2ft6. But here I suspect the joists provide support to the wall.
