Hello and yes, it's a renovation blog.

[AdamSee]

Not exactly pictures of the most recently development but just some more of the RSJ. So here's the weird bit, I do actually believe that this is part of the original house for a few reasons. Firstly the wood lathe strips that were on the ceiling leave a very obvious marking in the form of a line and two small splodges (technical term) on either side of the ceiling joists. These do not continue over the RSJ, so who ever fitted either went to a lot of effort the sand them off, or this went in before the ceiling was fitted. Secondly, the bricks it sits on are perpendicular to the rest and bridge from the inside leaf to the outside, again bit usual if it was retrofitted. Granted it would be incredibly rare for them to fit this in a 30s house so feel free to poke holes in my theory.

 

But anyway, I had a builder come around yesterday to look at various jobs around the place and I got him to look at this as well. He said it looked "ok" (but did say only a SE would be able to confirm its load bearing abilities properly) but building control would specify that either end is to be on pad stones. He said we could leave it, until he noticed that one end was sat on a piece of folded over tar sheeting on one end and then changed the recommendation to pad stones. Apparently the window frame we have should be load bearing to help, but I can't confirm that they are. As I was planning on changing them I can ensure that this is the case in the future. As for the crack above the door, apparently its most likley unrelated to this and was most likely down to settlement from the wooden lintel above the door. I think I can confirm this when I lift the floor and see whats going on underneath. 

 

All in all, i felt the builder to be quite trustworthy compared to a lot of the others that I've met in the past, he was well recommended by a friend. 

 

Apart from getting a SE in, I'm not sure what else to do apart from to go with his advice and get it on pad stones.

 

 

Edited April 11, 2018 by AdamSee

[PeterW]

I have a feeling that all your cracking is historic as that would have been a big wooden beam previously and someone has replaced that in the last few years but just slotted it where the beam was.

 

Can you get accurate dimensions on the steel..?

 

[Mr Punter]

The last picture doesn't look so bad to me, although a proper padstone would be better, but could be a bit fiddly.  Maybe ask Building Control what they would suggest?  If the upstairs floor is not deflecting, don't worry about the beam size.

[StructuralEngineer]

Looks to me like it's only carrying some floor joists and no masonry. This end of the beam looks better than the other end you showed us before. If you're having BC round at some point anyway, just get them to look at it. They probably won't ask for padstones if it's clearly part of the original build and is only carrying floor joists -- and the brick is well bonded below it.

[AdamSee]

Thanks for the advice folks, I will be getting the RSJ on pad stones as after closer inspection the brickwork and mortar around it don't look in great condition. Got a very good price to get it all sorted out in one go so it seems like the best idea to get it done and currently its just holding me up on on other jobs. 

Got a fair bit done over the weekend, managed to get the front bedroom completely stripped of plaster and managed to get the ceiling down as well. There's so much weird stuff hiding just behind ever surface of this house. We've found magazines and newspapers above the ceiling, oldest from 1952, loads of old paperwork to do with investments in the middle eastern countries and the unbelievable birds nests, one accommodated 3 rafters, 2 over the bathroom and one going up to the loft, that one over filled a 40 Ltr bucket once compressed down. The other was in the chimney. At first we thought it was just dirt...then we found half a bun and quite a large stick, I think its safe to assume that the chimney isn't capped. 

Finally managed to start getting the bay window back together, apart from 2 bricks all the others just lifted off, the cement was pretty well bonded to the underside of the brick...just not to the brick below it. 

You can see in the pic below the giant wooden beam that's part of the roof and a burnt patch from where the light was (and still is) arcing slightly.