What is the gap around my garage floor for?

[cactus head]

Hello,

I have a garage/barn on my new property, approx. 100 years old, single brick walls and timber and tiled pitched roof.

There is a gap around three walls (not the doors end), it measures 2 inches wide, and about 1 foot deep. The floor is concrete and it has a single layer of bricks edging it, which seem to go right down to the bottom of the gap. The concrete has some metal ties (?) joining the concrete to the walls (see 3rd pic)

I want to use the garage as a workshop and want to try and keep it as warm as possible, but this gap seems like a source of dampness.

I would like to fill this gap with something (expandable foam/concrete even - any ideas) but I first want to know what this gap is for, any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[^woody^]

It's a cavity wall

 

[bernardgreen]

Looks like it was a cavity wall and someone has removed the inner wall to get a few more inches of space in the garage.

If you can accept the loss of about 12 inches width ( 6 inches each side ) then rebuild the inner wall. This will reduce heat loss considerably.

 

[cactus head]

Thanks, I don't think I will go to the expense or trouble of re-building the inner wall, but was thinking of insulation board/wooden battens and plasterboard or plywood sheets - would it make sense to fill the gap with something?

Thanks!

 

[SimonH2]

Looking at how clean the tops of the bricks are, is it possible that it never had an inner leaf - but whoever built it had in mind converting it later, so started with the cavity up to floor level.

 

[^woody^]

would it make sense to fill the gap with something

No

 

[SimonH2]

I might however make sense to put something across the top to stop "stuff" falling down the gap.
It will be "rather annoying" to drop something and have it go plink down the bottom of the cavity.

 

[cactus head]

would it make sense to fill the gap with something

No

Thanks - but why is that?

 

[^woody^]

Because there is no need, and will serve no purpose. That's how cavity walls are.

 

[cactus head]

Thanks,but left as it is, won't the dampness come up the gap and be transferred into the room?

 

[^woody^]

Is that different to the dampness coming through the single skin wall?

 

[cactus head]

hmm I guess not, thanks