Masonry Experts - Do you know what this wall is made of and its properties:

chris_n

They build everything with Porotherm here in Austria, they take weight without problems. Porotherm blocks have many cavities and as you drill into it you drill about 15-20mm then hit a 10-15mm cavity then 10mm drilling, 10mm cavity and so on. If you put a test hole in the wall you will feel this, if it just goes hollow it could well be the old German type blocks pictured above.

sho_me_da_money

If it is the old German blocks. Can they take heavy load? Can affix 20KG onto them?

Would love to get a link or learn about these old German blocks. Do you guys know who could categorically confirm this - what expert do I need to bring in to validate?

stuart45

I've only laid them, never fixed anything to them. I've heard people talk about the problems with getting a decent fix. Different ideas are chemical fix, filling the cells, or through bolts to the other side.

GDB2222

Or a pedestal basin?

Gavin83

sho_me_da_money said:

Dear Members,

I am currently renovating our VERY small bathroom, and due to its size, converting it into a wet-room.

I have a partition wall that revealed the following after stripping away the plasterboard. When you tap on this, it feels very hollow and it all is in a terracotta colour. Does anyone know the exact name please? I have one more question further below.



I have since boarded over with Hardie Backer Board and the same wall now looks like this:



The idea is to mount the following to this partition wall:

- A shower unit where the pipes are sticking out
- To the right of the shower, I would like to mount a wet room single pane screen
- To the right of this, I want to mount a wall hung concrete basin.
- A slim mirrored cabinet above the sink.

I am not sure what/how much load this wall can handle and wanted to seek your advice to a) Learn what it is b) Would I have any issue mounting the above c) If yes, can I do anything about this without compromising the already small space. Someone said using anchors or something?

Thank you in advance!

On another note I assume you’re planning on tanking that wall before you tile it….

sho_me_da_money

stuart45 said:

I've only laid them, never fixed anything to them. I've heard people talk about the problems with getting a decent fix. Different ideas are chemical fix, filling the cells, or through bolts to the other side.

Thanks for this feedback Stuart. Do you know who I could call out to advise me on what I can or cannot do? Which trader should i call out specifically.

The pedestal basin or any other basin in a no-go with the Mrs. Would like a simple 450 x 250 Wall Hung Concrete Basin (15KG)

stuart45

I guess a local plumber might have come across this issue before. Apart from basins, they could have had to fix rads etc. Kitchen fitters are another trade that regularly have to fix to difficult walls.

Section62

stuart45 said:

I've only laid them, never fixed anything to them. I've heard people talk about the problems with getting a decent fix. Different ideas are chemical fix, filling the cells, or through bolts to the other side.

My experience is they can vary in properties even within one building - depending on what went into the pug mix and how long they were cooked for.

Some are exceptionally hard to drill without good quality bits and strong hammer action, but the hammer action can sometimes cause excessive overbreak in the inside face of the block - leaving a 'crater' so rawlplugs or similar have nothing to get a grip on.  Drilling a very small pilot and then opening up the hole without hammer seems to be the best way of minimising this problem.

Generally I treat them as a hollow wall, and just hope the hole isn't going into an edge or other solid part.

sho_me_da_money

Section62 said:

stuart45 said:

I've only laid them, never fixed anything to them. I've heard people talk about the problems with getting a decent fix. Different ideas are chemical fix, filling the cells, or through bolts to the other side.

My experience is they can vary in properties even within one building - depending on what went into the pug mix and how long they were cooked for.

Some are exceptionally hard to drill without good quality bits and strong hammer action, but the hammer action can sometimes cause excessive overbreak in the inside face of the block - leaving a 'crater' so rawlplugs or similar have nothing to get a grip on.  Drilling a very small pilot and then opening up the hole without hammer seems to be the best way of minimising this problem.

Generally I treat them as a hollow wall, and just hope the hole isn't going into an edge or other solid part.

Thank you.

I clearly am NOT the right man to do this job and feel like I am in no mans land.  Please can I request more of your support and feel free to dumb down the response as you want.

In you expert opinion could i also ask the same question and a few more questions as I asked Stuart above.

- Which trader should I call out to assess the area/clay wall to get the green light to ahead as I planned? I only have pictures of wall as it is now overlaid with Hardie Backer board. 
- Side line question - given that I now have Hardie Backer Board installed, does that improve my situation to put a fixed concrete basin (15-20KG) , wet room single panel (no idea of weight but likely to be heavy), mirrored cabinet (light in weight) and the actual tiles (again no idea of weight). Im wondering if the extra Hardie Backer layer helps provide something for the fixings to grip onto now?

I really appreciate everyones time and support here. I have not bought any of the fixings as I am in 'worry land' of whether they will attach ok. I just need a qualified expert eye and have no idea of who can give me this feedback.

Thank you.

GDB2222

sho_me_da_money said:

stuart45 said:

I've only laid them, never fixed anything to them. I've heard people talk about the problems with getting a decent fix. Different ideas are chemical fix, filling the cells, or through bolts to the other side.

Thanks for this feedback Stuart. Do you know who I could call out to advise me on what I can or cannot do? Which trader should i call out specifically.

The pedestal basin or any other basin in a no-go with the Mrs. Would like a simple 450 x 250 Wall Hung Concrete Basin (15KG)

Suppose that you find an expert who says that the wall can’t reliably take a basin? As others have said it’s not just the basin, but someone leaning on it heavily. 

I guess that you can demolish the wall and start again. Or, explain to your missus that the simple look she wants is not simple. Then hand her the sledgehammer and ask her to demolish the wall, if she wants that.