Brick dividing wall and lintel upstairs

[Lithgae]

Hi,
Stripping out 1980's bathroom in my 1800's house and found the outline of an old door, blocked a long time ago with lath and plaster.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i3urk1mevab9g8z/2018-05-27 13.24.56.jpg?dl=0

This wall divides the master bedroom from this bathroom, and we would like to restore this door to make the bathroom an ensuite to the master bedroom. The rest of the wall is made of brick, including above the wooden lintel. In fact I get the impression that the brick above is not directly connected to the rest of the wall, the wood that runs up the side of the door opening seems to continue up.

Although this has clearly been a door in the past, there is a chance that the wood that forms the centre connection to the laths, is now supporting the old wood lintel which also appears to be split along the right side.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9w7aqz8yhxbnyqa/2018-05-27 13.25.26.jpg?dl=0

A bit cautious about proceeding now, and thought I'd pause to get some thoughts. I doubt there is any load from the attic room on this as the joists sit at right angles and must rest on the wall to the side, but still a fair bit of weight in those bricks.

 

[Pennyviz]

Hard to see from pic, but that lintel doesn't seem to be sat on much apart from the door frame. How deep is the doorway? is there another lintel behind that one perhaps? The front one maybe more cosmetic. if that one is all there is then personally would be putting in another longer bigger lintel.


Penny

 

[Lithgae]

No, pretty sure that's it. The wall is only one brick thick, and you can see the inside of the lath and plaster for the other side.

As an aside, the entire wall seems to be sitting on top of a strip of wood, which is in turn on top of the joists, which are (hopefully) in turn sitting on a solid wall before. It seems surprising to have a brick wall built on top of a strip of wood, but a friend down the road was doing some work and found something similar so maybe its a local thing!!

 

[MatthewC]

Interesting. The condition of the right hand bit of the door frame is not clear, and the lintel does look poor with that crack. If you are really worried about the weight of the bricks above as well as the integrity of lintel, you could always replace those bricks with lath and plaster, especially if you think they aren't attached to the rest of the wall. At the same time you could replace the lintel if it's bad and add another stud or two to stiffen up the lath.

As regards the rest of the wall, what thickness is the strip of wood supporting it on the joists? I guess it's an inch or more? Unless the wall is cracked/loose/moving, I'd retain the wall as is.

Matthew

 

[88v8]

See how the lintel appears to be notched into the stud. I'd wager it will be the same the other side. That's not how one would normally build a stud wall.
So I wonder if the door was inserted after the house was built.
Then at a later date it was infilled again.

The lintel is only supporting a triangle of bricks. If you reckon each brick weighs 7lb, that's the total weight, distributed. Not much on a 4x2, even one with a bit of a split.

You'll be putting in a door frame, that will give more support. If you find the right hand end of the lintel is securely notched into the stud in the same way, I'd go with that.

Depending on what you intend doing with the room, you could lighten the load as has been suggested by changing to lathe & plaster or you could insert an overdoor window, stained glass. That would be a nice period feature.

Anyway, as far as I can see from the annoying Dropbox, it looks OK.

Ivor