Can you (would you) DIY an RSJ installation?

Apintplease

Our last RSJ took 8 men to lift in , and that was my husband as the builder knowing exactly what he was doing

As long as everything is pinned, your pads are accurate its an easy enough job as long as you have the lift power. Its no fun holding a RSJ above your head whilst someone is bashing the pad out a bit to fit it

weeg

As someone else noted, the weight of the beam is right there on the drawing. 23kg/m, so it'll be 50kg, which is a two man lift.

The tricky bit is in getting the propping right to do the work.

Jeepers_Creepers

CtWD, what exactly would you have to do? Has that wall been taken down yet? Have the wall ends been finished? Are the pad stones in place?

Our builder cast the pad stones in place; he had to build pillars first, and then just shuttered the top and filled it with concrete. Once he had the shutterings dead level with each other, he knew the cast padstones would be ditto.

Getting your RSJ into place isn't the tricky bit, it's making sure it's packed up tight and level against whatever it's meant to be tight and level against.

I guess - in theory at least - if the RSJ is jacked up tight against the joists of the floor above - with a timber baseplate betwixt them if this is called for? - then you could simply shutter up to the base of the RSJ at each and pour in your mix? That's a Q, because I don't know...

ChasingtheWelshdream

Nothing has been done yet as we have been patiently waiting :-)

It's not being taken to ceiling height, simply an opening at door height, so no need to worry about joists/ceiling, The padstones are to be placed on the 450mm piers left by the existing wall (I believe from looking at the plans. As I say, this is just exploratory and much more research would be undertaken if we do bite the bullet).

As far I as I can tell, it's little different from the single doorway I created with a standard concrete lintel - the main difference being the padstones.

stuart45

When doing this kind of work on older properties I've often had to rebuild the ends of the walls with engineering bricks, as the old walls built in lime mortar were not really sound enough for the pad stones and steel.

stuart45

How much brickwork is there above the UC once it's in?  If the wall finishes in between the joists, you might find it easier to take it down, stick the steel in and rebuild the brickwork over the top to save any propping.

ChasingtheWelshdream

Approx 70cm 

stuart45

ChasingtheWelshdream said:

Approx 70cm 

It's a couple of hundred bricks to lay. If the wall does finishes in between the joists I would probably take it down and rebuild over the steel, to save propping the wall and pinning up over the steel.
Old houses are full of surprises. The 9 inch spine wall in houses of that period normally went up and took part of the roof weight as well as the upper floor ceiling joists.

Jeepers_Creepers

ChasingtheWelshdream said:

It's not being taken to ceiling height, simply an opening at door height, so no need to worry about joists/ceiling, The padstones are to be placed on the 450mm piers left by the existing wall (I believe from looking at the plans. As I say, this is just exploratory and much more research would be undertaken if we do bite the bullet).

I'm not a builder so I don't know the following with any amount of certainty, but some things occur to me. This opening needs an RSJ, so it is structural. Its purpose will be to support/maintain rigidity to the floor above, surely?

You reckon there's a 700mm gap to be filled between the top of the RSJ and the ceiling? That's quite a lot - high ceilings?

If you fit the RSJ at doorway-opening height, then you'll have all this brickwork to do afterwards, and it'll be important how its done as it, too, is effectively 'structural'. That's a lot of work, and it needs doing properly and tightly.

Why isn't the RSJ going up tight against the ceiling first, and then the 700mm in-fill built below the RSJ in timber?

As said by others, you'll need to cut the wall sides neatly and/or make them good afterwards. Whilst you do this, the floor above in that area will need propping throughout. With the RSJ at 'doorway' height, these props will need to remain until the RSJ is in place and the brickwork is built up to the floor above, most likely with a wallplate on top - you'll be bricking around these props.

It would seem to me that to get that RSJ right up tight against the floor joists above (or whatever else is there) first, and then to cast the pad-stones would be an easier job, and - once set - the other props can come down. The opening can then be built down to the height required using normal studwork.

(Since/if the RSJ is structural, it'll need coating in intumescent paint, or protected in some other way.)

Unless I've misunderstood the purpose of this lintel.

stuart45

It's always hard to be sure without being on site, but according to the plans the joists are running parallel to the spine wall, and also the wall does not carry the wall above in that position as it is offset by 400mm. 
I would guess that if this is the case the UC is there to take the rest of the brickwork up to the floor void.  This is probably because if you look at the plans the wall needs to connect properly to the piers each side, otherwise the spine wall would lose some of it's stability.
If for example the brickwork was removed up to the ceiling height the piers each side would get a bit lonely.