To Corbel or not to Corbel (reducing the footprint of a pillar)

[Superted87]

So my house project is coming on nicely and the kitchen now has a beam across the width of it allowing us to knock through in to the extension however, I have two brick pillars now in the way that are on the picture left and right of the house and go from foundations up to roof height.

They stick out a good 300mm in to each room though and the other one is in the new downstairs loo which is even more imposing than the kitchen !

Basically I would like to support them with some sort of tapering/lintel/plate and think Corbelling may be the way. I have 4 or 5 courses of bricks in height to reduce the amount that the pillars stick out so plenty of scope to reduce by a small amount per course. My questions are then,

1, is this generally accepted as a way to bring in brickwork in this application?

2, am I missing a trick here with another method that you builder types use often?

3, could I just get a 600mm PSCL, build it in to the existing brickwork and cantilever it to support the bricks above ??

Thanks in advance guys

 

[Steve]

It is hard to say without a wider view. However it sounds and looks like those brick columns are supporting both the weight of the house above and lateral support for the timber frame at first floor level so it would be unwise to reduce their dimensions. I wouldn't be comfortable with it. They are that size for a reason usually. Someone more qualified should be along soon.

 

[Superted87]

its hard to work out really as they are not really columns at all, kind of just wrap arounds and they are barely even tied in to the rest ot the brickwork. The joists run width ways so are tied in to the outside and adjoining walls. The wall plate for the roof sits along the top of the front wall with the roof pitch width ways also but as far as load projected directly through the 1 or 2 bricks on the inside of the "columns" then im not sure, Ill get some better photos up this eve when I pop over to the house.