Ready to hire?

Post your job in minutes, browse real reviews and choose who to speak to.Post a job

Need some tips or advice?

Restoration & Refurbishment

Load bearing wall replaced with a stud wall?

Anonymous user 01/03/2024 - 2.49 PM

Hi, I've recently bought a house built in the 1930s which has had a solid load bearing wall replaced with a stud wall. The previous owners said the work was carried out prior to their own purchase which 20 years ago. Currently I have no idea of the adequacy of support provided to the retained brick walls above. The building survey stated that without destructive investigation he couldn't confirm the adequacy of support but there were no indications of structural problems. What would be the best way to get this checked out and if there is inadequate structural support how would it be fixed? Additional: My question, if a u beam has been used to support the upstairs and the downstairs wall has been replaced by a stud wall, why would anyone do that? What could be the potential reason to replace a downstairs brick wall with a stud wall and leave the upstairs brick wall? Could it indicate some problems with the foundations around the area where the stud wall has been introduced? Its not a ex council house and back then I don't think they required such planning permission. I'm not sure if this is even a load bearing wall since the joist run parallel to it. Why the surveyor said it probably was beats me. Maybe the upper wall is simply built on top of the upstairs floorboard. If not what if I simply rebrick it up back to the upper section?

Are you a tradesperson and able to answer this question?

4 Answers

Anonymous user

Hi adam chances are an adequete steel lintel/beam support has been intalled; tell tale sign would be very much apprarent i.e crack i wall and signs of structural failure woulb be verry much appeprent i.e cracking plaster is an itial sign of strtucructal failure .. howvere on the a lighter note some kind of double freanch doors have probaly just be replaced with with a stud pratiton; it fs its a worry have an SE deternind the amount of substadence.

Answered8 September 2015

Anonymous user

Hi Adam. If the wall above is brick or block work, then they may well have fitted a steel {should be} You can make a small hole in the ceiling and look to see if an RSJ [reinforced steel joist] is present or not. I hazard a guess that the stud wall is acting as the support for the joists and possibly the wall above if its directly beneath the old wall! If there is no steel in place one needs to be installed. Hope this helps Andy Hi again, I doubt if a steel beam is in place and they built the stud work wall in place of the brick /block wall, why? Who knows maybe the old wall was bowed or out of level! Maybe they realized they had taken out a load bearing wall and hoped that stud work would be OK to replace? Again it's a wild guess, we will never know. I doubt the foundations have anything to do with it. The 1930s was a good era for building control, is it ex council? If so, you're ok, they where red hot on building control in those days. It is a simple job to expose a hole in the ceiling to see if a steel is in place. Happy hunting! Best Regards Andy

Answered12 November 2013

Anonymous user

In all cases you should get a structural engineer involved, you will need building control approval. In these situations a flitch beam is appropriate.

Answered12 November 2013

Mark Swallow Brickwork

Rating: 5 out of 5

Woking

i am not by any means a structural engineer,whom you would need to put your mind at rest.but stud work can become load bearing if plywood is screwed to it correctly.

Answered21 February 2016