Hi, I would be grateful for some advice please.
My Victorian house is a two up one down type, with entrance on middle level and a side door to lower level.
In the hallway ceiling just inside the lower level side door, I noticed some cracks and after consulting a Stonemason, it turns out that this is a steel reinforced concrete slab that was cast to support the stone threshold above which was likely deteriorating. The steel reinforcements have rusted and expanded and fractured the concrete.
Replacing this entire threshold (stone and concrete) is too big a job for me to consider at present, but being a layperson I have great concern that the concrete is going to collapse and either land on someone's head or someone is going to fall through from above!
The Stonemason suggested a few steel rods or angle bars could be run underneath, spanning the width of the hallway, as support. Just in one direction, not a cage structure. They would have to be thin as the gas pipe runs close to the ceiling on the door side.
My question is, with just a few bars, what would stop the concrete from crumbling or fracturing in between the bars?
Also, does anyone have any other ideas of how to support this concrete slab?
Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you. Photos below (it is the house with painted brickwork).
My Victorian house is a two up one down type, with entrance on middle level and a side door to lower level.
In the hallway ceiling just inside the lower level side door, I noticed some cracks and after consulting a Stonemason, it turns out that this is a steel reinforced concrete slab that was cast to support the stone threshold above which was likely deteriorating. The steel reinforcements have rusted and expanded and fractured the concrete.
Replacing this entire threshold (stone and concrete) is too big a job for me to consider at present, but being a layperson I have great concern that the concrete is going to collapse and either land on someone's head or someone is going to fall through from above!
The Stonemason suggested a few steel rods or angle bars could be run underneath, spanning the width of the hallway, as support. Just in one direction, not a cage structure. They would have to be thin as the gas pipe runs close to the ceiling on the door side.
My question is, with just a few bars, what would stop the concrete from crumbling or fracturing in between the bars?
Also, does anyone have any other ideas of how to support this concrete slab?
Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you. Photos below (it is the house with painted brickwork).
