Timber lintel between floors

[erikwoolf]

Does anyone know why timber lintel would be used between floors? Some of the external walls and almost all of the internal walls in the property seem to have wooden lintels that run the whole length of the wall between the 2 floors of the house. In at least one of the external walls part of the wood has been damaged and will probably need replacing. The wall above doesn't seem to have suffered any issues from the damage to the wooden beam.
the 1st photo shows the ceiling of the ground floor where the bricks end and the wooden beam starts. The 2nd is a close up of the same area. You can see the damage in the wooden beam.

 

[Gothichome]

I would suggest your home has a post and beam framing, or maybe balloon type framing. Meaning the floors are constructed on a frame skeleton rather than platform constructio.

 

[Cubist]

Is the wall above built of brick or is it a stud partition?

 

[erikwoolf]

Is the wall above built of brick or is it a stud partition?

It is brick, the house walls are solid masonry.

 

[Cubist]

If the beam is not carrying a floor in an adjacent room the I can only think that its purpose was either to provide some lateral thrust reinforcement or to spread the point loads during construction of the wall above a void of some kind below.

 

[a twig]

Was the house previously single storey and they left the wall plate in when putting the second storey on?

 

[erikwoolf]

If the beam is not carrying a floor in an adjacent room the I can only think that its purpose was either to provide some lateral thrust reinforcement or to spread the point loads during construction of the wall above a void of some kind below.

I lifted the floorboards on the 1st floor and looked from above the ceiling today. I think the wooden beam is essentially the wall plate for the joists of the 1st floor. From a quick reading it looks like you can replace the part that it is rotten with something that is called timber resin splice system. Alternatively I guess to take the whole thing out and put a new lintel in. We are having the opposite wall from the one with the rotten wooden beam removed and replaced with a steel frame so there is some flexibility to do more structural work if required.

 

[erikwoolf]

Was the house previously single storey and they left the wall plate in when putting the second storey on?

It was build as a 4 storey from the beginning but maybe there was a technique at the time to have wooden wall plates at each storey? I tried to do some reading online but this kind of technical information is not easy to find!