Lateral wall support

welshguy84

Hi, hope someone can offer advice, i have a 1970's, 3 bedroom mid terrace house and in progress of removing the wall that divided the living room. 
 There are only internal stud walls above it. Joists ran in the same direction as the wall and was nothing but air and plasterboard sat on the top of the wall before it was removed, so no concern of it being load bearing.

However I've released now "better late than never" that it may be providing lateral support to the wall between window and door.  About 4 of the blocks are tied into it/rest are cemented to it  Should I be worried about this or is the fact it is brick/block construction that's tied together sufficient? Should mention to that the area by the blue pool under the window is a recently blocked up kitchen door and the window has been extended across.Any advice appreciated 

stuart45

It will be giving some lateral support to the walls, but the amount it gives and whether it will have any noticeable effect is the job for an SE.
Some of them might say it's OK, others might design a windpost into it.

GDB2222

I had to look up windposts. How would it be attached at the top, where there are only joists?

tacpot12

If the back wall of the house is correctly constructed (i.e. the inner and outer leaves are correctly tied together), I think you will be fine. 

The wall you are removing will have been providing some lateral restraint, but I think that the 1st floor joists would be more than able to provide the required restraint, providing the joists are resting directly on the inner leaf and have been installed correctly so that they have enough bearing under them - the weight on the joists provides all the friction needed to tranfer the lateral loads from wall to joist in both tension and compression. The situation is different if the joists are hung on hangers - in that case, every few joists should have a lateral restraint strap.  

I'll caveat my comment by saying that I am a householder with a very limited knowledge of structural engineering. I'm not a builder or a structural engineer.

stuart45

GDB2222 said:

I had to look up windposts. How would it be attached at the top, where there are only joists?

They have to put a noggin between the joists to fix it to.

stuart45

tacpot12 said:

 The situation is different if the joists are hung on hangers - in that case, every few joists should have a lateral restraint strap.  

Back in the 70's we weren't using restraint straps.

Section62

stuart45 said:

It will be giving some lateral support to the walls, but the amount it gives and whether it will have any noticeable effect is the job for an SE.
Some of them might say it's OK, others might design a windpost into it.

I agree, definitely a job for an SE.

The remaining pillar of bricks will be weaker than normal by having the two vents through it, and it looks as if there is an unusually large amount of brickwork above the ground floor windows... unless that is an optical illusion from the camera angle.

welshguy84

Section62 said:

stuart45 said:

It will be giving some lateral support to the walls, but the amount it gives and whether it will have any noticeable effect is the job for an SE.
Some of them might say it's OK, others might design a windpost into it.

I agree, definitely a job for an SE.

The remaining pillar of bricks will be weaker than normal by having the two vents through it, and it looks as if there is an unusually large amount of brickwork above the ground floor windows... unless that is an optical illusion from the camera angle.

Better angle, 

welshguy84

Thanks for the replies, I guess I will leave a 1m section of the wall in place until a SE has looked at it, only one block that was tounged into the external wall has been removed so far so I guess worst case I can just rebuild that small section

welshguy84

tacpot12 said:

If the back wall of the house is correctly constructed (i.e. the inner and outer leaves are correctly tied together), I think you will be fine. 

The wall you are removing will have been providing some lateral restraint, but I think that the 1st floor joists would be more than able to provide the required restraint, providing the joists are resting directly on the inner leaf and have been installed correctly so that they have enough bearing under them - the weight on the joists provides all the friction needed to tranfer the lateral loads from wall to joist in both tension and compression. The situation is different if the joists are hung on hangers - in that case, every few joists should have a lateral restraint strap.  

I'll caveat my comment by saying that I am a householder with a very limited knowledge of structural engineering. I'm not a builder or a structural engineer.

I have no idea what joist hangers are but from this pic I'm pretty sure it's your 1st scenario, resting on the inner leaf as in this pic, the joists are very large to 195mm by 50mm each 

GDB2222

How do you intend to hide the soil stack, if you remove that wall?  Perhaps, leaving say 1m of wall would serve two purposes?