support beam for opening in external wall

[brookster]

Hi all. Help needed asap!!! Sorry for the length of the post

My friend has got a standard brick victorian semi in Manchester area which has the usual single storey flat roof kitchen extension on the back. He is wanting to open up the wall in between the original and extended kitchen which already has a doorway in obviously. He has gone through all the correct channells - good builder, building control, and a structural eng. to do the calcs for the supporting beam for the opening (which is about 2.7m). My question is - if you imagine you are stood in the old kitchen area looking through the doorway into the s.s. kitchen extension, the engineer has specified that the beam must be supported on a 550mm pier on the right hand side "because it is the corner of the original house", but this will ruin the kitchen layout and there is not a 550mm pier there at the moment as the doorway is only 250mm from the external right hand wall, i thought that 150mm was sufficient?? any idea if he could get away with less than 550mm?? Any help massively appreciated as building has currently ground to a halt. many thanx.
Brookster.

 

[masona]

The problem is we can't see it, best to give your structural engineer a ring to advise you as it's very important to get this right.

 

[shaggy]

The 550 requirement is not for support of the beam but is in the Building Regs as a requirement for a buttressing wall. Let me quote from my(out-of-date) regs:
Buttressing walls should have:
(c) no opening or recess greater than 0.6m² in area within a horizontal distance of 550mm from the junction with the supported wall, and openings and recesses generally disposed so as not to impair the supporting effect of the buttressing wall.
You are right that the beam could rest on 150mm but I think the issue concerns the reg about buttressing walls.
As I said, my regs are way out of date but as well as talking to your engineer as masona says, it may be best to clarify this with Building Control. This detail should have been specified on the plans.

 

[chappers]

that is still the case Shaggy the only way you may be able to get round this is to build a tied in pier on the outside of the wall. you will still need to speak to the structural engineer

 

[shaggy]

Something like this?

 

[chappers]

oh grand was thinking of adding a cdouple of those to my victorian terrace but bastard planners wouldn't have it.

was thinking of something a little more modest, maybe just two flying buttresses

 

[brookster]

Thanks very much guys.
I have explained the reasoning behind the engineers decisions to my friend thanks to your excellent replies.
I too now understand a bit more about building regs and how they affect things. Looks like he's going to have to accept the section of wall and fit the kitchen to suit.
Muchos apreciado messers chappers, shaggy and masona.

This site is the nuts !!

 

[AdamW]

I suppose on the bright side, the pier will be about as deep as the units. So it could be a good opportunity to define different areas. Perhaps have a utility area on one side of the pier, opposite to the "kitchen-proper".

Sorry, I've been watching a lot of Sarah Beeny lately...

 

[shaggy]

That's ok Adam & it's exactly what I did in an old victorian terrace house I renovated & lived in for a few years. I extended the original kitchen into what was the coal shed & outside bog. The pier you can see is on the party wall but there is another one opposite on the outside wall to satisfy the buttress reg. It was easy to get the rsj above the ceiling as it was only supporting brickwork. I think it looks ok.

 

[breezer]

that looks like an old hotpoint washing m/c

 

[shaggy]

Well spotted mate! What a great machine that was; I used it for 15 years (ok, only once a week) before the bearings started to rumble and then I considered repairing it. I decided that the programmer could have failed a week later and I think they were £90 so I scrapped it. It never gave any trouble at all and I didn't spend a penny on repairs with no leaks ever. When I see posts about problems with new machines I have to think they don't make them like they used to.

 

[masona]

and the oven ?

 

[breezer]

Well spotted mate! What a great machine that was

i am gald you liked it, i used to repair them and i always thought they were horrible

 

[shaggy]

The oven was the cheapest one on offer from the gas showroom, when they sold appliances. I didn't have much money then, about 1978.
The washing machine may have been horrible to repair but it washed clothes ok. I never repaired it so perhaps I was lucky.
More interesting, the demi-jons were full of home made wine.