Hi all,
I’ll try to explain the situation. I have a rectangular ground floor room which currently has the joists above it for the first floor removed. I need to add in an internal staircase and so I am in the process of working out how best to construct a wall to section off the stairs and carry the first floor joists which will no longer run from one end to the other because of the addition of the stairs.
Imagine a recatangle with North, South, East and West faces. The new stairs will run along the East face from South to North. The joists are being renewed and will hang from a wall plate bolted into the South face, running South to North, parallel to the run of the stairs.
I plan to build a block wall from North to South let’s say splitting the room into 3/4 and 1/4 widths. This will section off the stairwell. The block wall will also then support a beam along the North face (East to West) which will carry the other end of the joists.
The first floor will simply be a landing area, this is the only floor above ground level.
The two questions I have then are:
1) Is a single skin block wall sufficient to carry the beam at one end onto which the floor joists hang or should it be double skin?
2) The groundfloor construction is solid concrete approximately 7” thick. Is this a sufficient foundation for the block wall?
Cheers!
I’ll try to explain the situation. I have a rectangular ground floor room which currently has the joists above it for the first floor removed. I need to add in an internal staircase and so I am in the process of working out how best to construct a wall to section off the stairs and carry the first floor joists which will no longer run from one end to the other because of the addition of the stairs.
Imagine a recatangle with North, South, East and West faces. The new stairs will run along the East face from South to North. The joists are being renewed and will hang from a wall plate bolted into the South face, running South to North, parallel to the run of the stairs.
I plan to build a block wall from North to South let’s say splitting the room into 3/4 and 1/4 widths. This will section off the stairwell. The block wall will also then support a beam along the North face (East to West) which will carry the other end of the joists.
The first floor will simply be a landing area, this is the only floor above ground level.
The two questions I have then are:
1) Is a single skin block wall sufficient to carry the beam at one end onto which the floor joists hang or should it be double skin?
2) The groundfloor construction is solid concrete approximately 7” thick. Is this a sufficient foundation for the block wall?
Cheers!
