Opening in wall supporting stone stairs

[Andrew D]

 

Our cellar stairs are made of york stone and are built in between our neighbour's wall and a single story brick wall from our cellar floor level to the bottom of the suspended ground floor joist level.

Above this is wooden panelling to hide the cellar stairs from the hall so apart from the stone cellar stairs this wall isn't supporting anything else.

Even the ground floor hallway joists run parallel to the wall so aren't supported by it.

 

The wall only runs for the length of the stairs with an opening beneath the top of the stairs between this wall and a supporting wall running perpendicular to it. See the photo where you can see the edge of the stone steps set in the brick wall.

 

 

I want to put a tumble dryer where the current opening is but this makes the rest of the space under the stairs a bit useless as I won’t be able to get to it.

so I’d like to create an opening in this part while still supporting the stairs.

Something like my attached sketch.

 

Does anyone know a simple way of doing this? What support would be required?

Thanks in advance and apologies for the messy cellar

 

[Redbeard]

That's *really* not a messy cellar! It looks like you can find some space to put your feet.

 

We really need a SE along, but (as a NOT SE) the only comment I would make is that, as drawn, maybe the remaining pier on the RHS is a bit thin?? In reality I suspect that the treads are to some extent cantilevered off the neighbour's wall. We took our stone steps out to aid comprehensive waterproofing. You might also get more useful space if you did that (though it is not for the faint-hearted, and the wall in question was , for me, not a Party Wall. (PWA may be triggered?? - not sure about that.).