I'm in the middle of assessing a property which is an end-terrace house which has 405mm thick walls measured at both back and front of the house at the door reveals. The house has a solid wall external full brick layer and inside there is an internal red brick English garden bond wall evident both in the cellar and loft. The house is reputed to have been built between 1900 - 1915. The wall appears extremely thick not to be a cavity wall but the owners say that they believe it is, could you please comment?
- Thread starter Vincenti
- Start date
Feltwell
Member
- Messages
- 6,377
- Location
- Shropshire, England
What's the brick bond externally (presuming it is not fully rendered) and are they standard 9" bricks? Is it possible that's it's been built with a 9" thick outer or inner skin, cavity and then a 4.5" skin? Presumably also it hasn't been battened and dry-lined internally.
I've come across a 1920 house with cavity construction, but that was standard single thickness stretcher bond inside and out, as per a modern house.
I've come across a 1920 house with cavity construction, but that was standard single thickness stretcher bond inside and out, as per a modern house.
Apologies the outer skin is solid stone which appear to have larger stone for the first floor with the width of the stone getting smaller the higher the building gets. If it had have been brick I would have gone for a cavity wall, but with it being stone I'm not so sure. Any assistance would be of help.
Lime
Member
- Messages
- 2,749
- Location
- East of England
A house I bought a few years ago had an unusual construction.
The main body of the house was built in 1870 (no cavity) but an addition had been added sometime later.
About 1900-1914 as a guess.
The walls consisted of a standard two brick thick external wall, followed by a cavity of approx 2inches, then a further layer of bricks laid on their sides.
Standard lime plaster covered the side-on bricks.
The cavity was well ventilated with many air bricks top and bottom of the external wall.
The consequence was that the wall was very thick but gave very poor insulation.
The point I'm making is that anything can happen in construction.
The main body of the house was built in 1870 (no cavity) but an addition had been added sometime later.
About 1900-1914 as a guess.
The walls consisted of a standard two brick thick external wall, followed by a cavity of approx 2inches, then a further layer of bricks laid on their sides.
Standard lime plaster covered the side-on bricks.
The cavity was well ventilated with many air bricks top and bottom of the external wall.
The consequence was that the wall was very thick but gave very poor insulation.
The point I'm making is that anything can happen in construction.
Penners
Member
- Messages
- 17,294
- Location
- Suffolk, England
Vincenti - if you go up into the loft and crawl out as far as you can towards the eaves, can you see the tops of the walls? This is sometimes possible (depending on the roof pitch and the arrangement of any roof plate). If you could see it, this might answer your question.
A mobile phone or cheap digital camera can also be pushed into places you can't quite see. Beware though I murdered my posh Canon compact by sticking it into a roofspace and getting dust in the extending zoom lens. You can 'dust proof' with clear plastic bags as you only want to see what's going on not print the results as a poster.Penners said: