please come and talkto me about knocking down external walls in a timber framed house

[ByThePowerOfGreyskull]

Our kitchen guy is getting cold feet because he has never worked on a timber framed house we are knocking down a wall from the kitchen (built as an extension)into the main body of the house, we thought he would just do the same as a brick built house and put in an RSJ but he thinks it is much more complex than that....

Can anyone help??

bump

How old is your house? I believe that it can be a bit tricky with old timber framed houses - something to do with the complexities of what is supporting what.

I had a quick google, and found this useful post on another forum:

"In order to remove a load bearing panel in a timberframe structure , you would have to replace the panel with a glulam beam , or a steel support beam that would have the same load carrying capacity , or better, than the panel you are removing.

The ends of the new support beam would have to be placed into 2 support pockets formed in the panels running at 90 degrees to your existing panel, if the new beam is to be placed below the ceiling/floor that its carrying. This would be the easier option than placing it in the floor zone. Either way , the ends of the beams would also need to have additional vertical supports placed below them , down to the foundation level.

In short this is a job that first needs to be assessed by a competent timberframe engineer / designer , before any work commences."

bugger, thanks GM,

it is 20 years old so not a great age. but I imagine the problem will be the same..

I'll ask my DP for you - he's a member of the Guild Of Timber Framers so he'll know! He is a builder - it's not just a saddo hobby

ooooohhhh thanks so much!!

Yes, it is different to a brick built house...and follows pretty much what Grendelsmum said.

OK - straight from DP's mouth!
"You'll need a strucural engineer to come and do strucural calculations as the timber frame will be carrying the load.

Basically you need to have either a fitch (sp?) beam which is bits of wood with bits of metal sandwiched between or an engineered timber beam (eg: glulam).

Basically you can let the engineer design it but technically you must have building control to oversea anything strucural done on the house.

So - first port of call is get a struc engineer and take it from there. All your builder then needs to do is to follow the engineer's instructions.

HTH

OOh I have ££ sounds before my eyes.

JeanJeannie can you ask your DH, is it a much more expensive job than a regular brick built house?

Apparently not - shouldn't cost more than a brick build needing a RSJ. You would still need to calculate the load (hence a struc engineer) and you should always get local council building control in to check it's OK (which costs about £100 or so)

Your builder could guess the size of RSJ if he estimated at the wieght of the load but I wouldn't advise it. DP does this sort of thing all the time and never leaves it to chance. Also if you come to sell the house then they'll ask to see the building control stuff etc, etc and it's not worth skipping it.

Plus...there have been a few awful building traumas on this board where, even the most highly spoken of builders, have caused havoc and when building control have come to inspect it everything has been wrong and calculations have all gone awry.

Money now - save SHED loads later

Wow, there's always someone on MN that knows!

JeanJeannie is totally right - if you don't have the building control sign it off and preferably some structural engineer's calculations to wave at the new buyers to boot, you'll have such a hassle selling it on that you'll be kicking yourself.

(We are currently thinking about having some minor alterations done to our timber frame, hence having looked into it a little.)