Where are the supports on my staircase?

[Curiosity101]

I have included a layout of upstairs and downstairs which will hopefully help.

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• Curiosity101
• 10 Apr 2013
• 1

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• Curiosity101
• 22 Mar 2013
• 2

I was wondering if the original brick wall that has been taken down (by previous owners) was in fact likely to be a supporting wall for the corner of the stairs? Downstairs in the kitchen the bricks were removed upto a horizontal wooden joist around 4inches thick that runs the width of the stairs and is currently only supported at the end by a vertical piece of wood that is also around 4inches thick. The joist horizontal joist is set into the wall and has 2 more joists sat on it that have breeze blocks sat on them(attempted to show on picture). I assume this is how the corner is being supported?

I understand this might sound a bit confusing and I'll update the post tomorrow with a few photographs that'll make it much easier to understand, but can anyone hazard a guess at whether we'll need to brick this up again/support it properly.

Our builder isn't back for a week and I'm feeling a bit impatient, plus we hope to start work on the electrics and get a plasterer in soon after so we need to work out what we're doing with this under stairs cupboard before we can do anything else.

Even if you can just talk me through how corner stairs like ours are normally supported that'll give me an idea. I know straight stairs just sit on the joints upstairs but that's about it for my understanding of staircases.

 

[Harbourwoodwork]

Yes send some pics ,more the better

 

[Curiosity101]

Pictures as promised

This is the understairs cupboard, the blue side facing the camera is actually just a piece of painted MDF over the original doorframe.

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• Curiosity101
• 11 Apr 2013
• 1

And this is the opening that was originally bricked up

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• Curiosity101
• 11 Apr 2013
• 1

This is a couple of views of what is above the cupboard, presumably supporting the 'landing' as the stairs turn 90degrees?

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• Curiosity101
• 11 Apr 2013
• 1

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• Curiosity101
• 11 Apr 2013
• 1

Here are two images showing where the 'supporting' horizontal beam goes into the exterior wall, and then the vertical 'support' on the left helping to hold it up.

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• Curiosity101
• 11 Apr 2013
• 1

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• Curiosity101
• 11 Apr 2013
• 1

Thanks, any help is very much appreciated.

 

[chirpychippy]

Do you have a intermediate landing or a winder on your staircase?

 

[Curiosity101]

Yes, the staircase rises for a couple of metres, then there is a 70cm x 70cm (ish) landing (just above the breeze blocks in the picture), then it turns to the right 90 degrees and continues up the next 30-50cm onto the main landing.

 

[chirpychippy]

Ok, this is still quite a difficult question to answer so I will make some asumptions. You dont actually have a corner to your staircase because it has an intermdiate landing. "If you had a winder staircase then you would have a corner staircase" What you have is a straight flight stair case which will be housed over a double joist underneath the top tread. From this double joist you have the three 4x2 joists that you can see in the picture that are sat on the 4x4 timber that is housed into the house wall and picked up by the vertical 4x4 post.

The intermediate landing consists of the the 3 4x2's you can see and there should be another one against the house wall, ontop of these there will be floorboards laid and fixed at 90 degrees to the joists. Then turn to your right you should have one more "maybe two" treads to the actual landing this small flight of stairs will be supported by the intermediate landing and housed over a floor joist and screwed to the walls either side. Your main flight will also be screwed to the walls either side.

The intermediate landing itself only bears the weight of itself and occasional foot traffic so I reckon the 4x4 timber picked up by the vertical 4x4 post and housed into the wall is strong enough for that load providing the vertical post has adequate fixings to hold it in place. However, and this I cannot see on your pictures, if the 4x2 joists that are taking the inter landing are also taking the load of the block wall then the existing support is insufficient.

Ideally the block wall should be sitting on a concrete lintel which is housed on a pad stone into the house wall and like wise in the opposite internal brick wall taking the load of the wall independantly to the joists.

 

[Curiosity101]

After much thought we've worked out that the breeze block wall is an extension of the bathroom wall. Therefore the horizontal beam is in effect part of the supporting structure for 3 joists which run under the bathroom floor and part of the bathroom wall.

Are we likely to be ok simply rebuilding the supporting brick wall that was there originally (with the theory that it was deemed enough support when the house was first built)? Or will we need to get a structural engineer in to advise us on beefing up the woodwork?