Best way to cut pockets in a party wall for padstones and beams?

[Oceans247]

Hi there,

I need to cut pockets for padstones and steel beams.

Is there some magic way of doing this without damaging the neighbours side?

The pointing/mortar is old and soft, so I planned on scraping it our above and below the bricks for the horizontal ones and then removing the bricks like that. But there are the bricks that go sideways from my side to the other side.

 

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

I don't know of anyway of doing this without the neighbours becoming aware. Why not talk to them, explain what you need, and ask them for tolerance?

 

[Notch7]

do you have a party wall agreement?

if so the details should already have been designed and agreed

 

[Oceans247]

Hi guys,

I don't know of any way of doing this without the neighbours becoming aware. Why not talk to them, explain what you need, and ask them for tolerance?

They are fully aware. But them being aware does not help. What I need is to remove bricks from the party wall... How best to do it is the question...

do you have a party wall agreement?

if so the details should already have been designed and agreed

I do have a party wall award but it makes absolutely no reference as to how to actually cut out the pockets.

I am less concerned about the bricks running inline with the partywall as they are only on my side. It's the one that go from side to side that are giving me a headache. Unless I am mistaken I will essentially have to cut them in half without disturbing them.

 

[^woody^]

Cut the joints with a handsaw, take the bricks out, tooth the opening, put the padstone in, cut some half bricks, put them in.

 

[Oceans247]

Cut the joints with a handsaw, take the bricks out, tooth the opening, put the padstone in, cut some half bricks, put them in.

Hello again Woody. With what tool do you recommend cutting the bricks in half? I would assume any percussion tools would cause the plaster to fall off the wall on the neighbour's side.

 

[Oceans247]

As you can see, my neighbour's builder could have done with asking the same question I am asking. That's the steel for their loft.

View media item 104493

 

[^woody^]

Hello again Woody. With what tool do you recommend cutting the bricks in half? I would assume any percussion tools would cause the plaster to fall off the wall on the neighbour's side.

You take the bricks out first, not cut them in the wall.

Then use a hammer and bolster chisel, brick hammer or disc saw to cut them. BTW, you can use a different brick to make good, or block - such as thermalite block which you can cut with a wood saw.

 

[cdbe]

The (very) messy way is to cut slots into the exposed headers with an angle grinder and just tap the remaining bits of brick off- you might need 3 passes with a 4 1/2" grinder to achieve the depth but there will be absolutely no disturbance to the other end of the brick.

 

[^woody^]

Yeah, fill the house with dust. And I'd give it 10 seconds before you can't see a thing in the loft.