Purchase regret or reason to worry?

stuart45

bobster2 said:

TheJP said:

Marleysmummy99 said:

Marleysmummy99 said:

Well things have moved on.

First time up in the loft and saw this has been removed!!! Surveyor completely missed this. There looks to have been a wall there that has been removed. The chimney woodwork is held up by bricks throughout the loft except this one. 

I'm getting a structural engineer round. 

I'll get my husband to take another. It is a massive wood beam spanning the whole loft. House is a 4 bed double fronted detached - wide roof. There are lots of brick walls in the loft holding up the wooden beam but this one removed. 

To me that looks as if thats where the wall ends, i dont think anything was removed. The surveyor will be able to clarify that for you. Whats the ventilation like up there?

Yes - it does look like that. All the bricks have their flat surfaces facing upwards - with no mortar remants sticking up. If this was a wall that went higher and had been demolished you'd normally expect to see the frogged (indented) surface upwards.

Bricks often get laid frog down on site.

Marleysmummy99

stuart45 said:

bobster2 said:

TheJP said:

Marleysmummy99 said:

Marleysmummy99 said:

Well things have moved on.

First time up in the loft and saw this has been removed!!! Surveyor completely missed this. There looks to have been a wall there that has been removed. The chimney woodwork is held up by bricks throughout the loft except this one. 

I'm getting a structural engineer round. 

I'll get my husband to take another. It is a massive wood beam spanning the whole loft. House is a 4 bed double fronted detached - wide roof. There are lots of brick walls in the loft holding up the wooden beam but this one removed. 

To me that looks as if thats where the wall ends, i dont think anything was removed. The surveyor will be able to clarify that for you. Whats the ventilation like up there?

Yes - it does look like that. All the bricks have their flat surfaces facing upwards - with no mortar remants sticking up. If this was a wall that went higher and had been demolished you'd normally expect to see the frogged (indented) surface upwards.

Bricks often get laid frog down on site.

If the structural engineer thinks all OK then I'll be happy. 

Re loft bricks. There is no mortar visible on top when thinking about it if they were removed. My husband saw this and was concerned but with no mortar on top I'm not sure anything was removed. 

Better photo. 

stuart45

It's difficult to be sure if any brickwork has been removed from the photos, as the bed joints often come off quite easily with a bolster chisel.
Normally you only take load bearing partition walls above the ceiling. If there's none, you wait until the ceiling is tacked, then build the walls up to the plasterboard. It's possible they decided later not to build that wall any higher as it looks to be right next to the trap hatch. However, it's still possible it's been taken down. You wouldn't normally take a wall into the roof space and leave it one course above for no reason.

Marleysmummy99

stuart45 said:

It's difficult to be sure if any brickwork has been removed from the photos, as the bed joints often come off quite easily with a bolster chisel.
Normally you only take load bearing partition walls above the ceiling. If there's none, you wait until the ceiling is tacked, then build the walls up to the plasterboard. It's possible they decided later not to build that wall any higher as it looks to be right next to the trap hatch. However, it's still possible it's been taken down. You wouldn't normally take a wall into the roof space and leave it one course above for no reason.

That makes sense. It is in a very awkward place, I'll see what the structural engineer says tomorrow. The roof is very wide - there are a lot of mini walls holding up the roof. Surveyor didn't make any comment about this - it was a level 3 survey. 

stuart45

It's quite a complex roof. I'm a bricklayer, not a structural engineer, or even a carpenter, so I'm not an expert in roof structures, but then most surveyors aren't. The beams that go across the roof look like rafter tie beams, which are more under tension than compression, no support underneath isn't as important as for the purlins which are under compression, although it is taking the weight of at least one purlin. I'm guessing.It's a hipped roof with a couple of cross gables at the front?
My wife is a worrier about the house as well. We live in an old cottage that's full of cracks. After a while you'll get used to it. It's like when you buy a second-hand car. For the first month you worry about every rattle, but you get used to it and just turn the radio up. Luckily your husband is good at DIY, so you should have no worries. I don't see any real issues from all the photos.

Marleysmummy99

stuart45 said:

It's quite a complex roof. I'm a bricklayer, not a structural engineer, or even a carpenter, so I'm not an expert in roof structures, but then most surveyors aren't. The beams that go across the roof look like rafter tie beams, which are more under tension than compression, no support underneath isn't as important as for the purlins which are under compression, although it is taking the weight of at least one purlin. I'm guessing.It's a hipped roof with a couple of cross gables at the front?
My wife is a worrier about the house as well. We live in an old cottage that's full of cracks. After a while you'll get used to it. It's like when you buy a second-hand car. For the first month you worry about every rattle, but you get used to it and just turn the radio up. Luckily your husband is good at DIY, so you should have no worries. I don't see any real issues from all the photos.

Thank you for being so helpful. 

This is the roof - wide roof

Marleysmummy99

Left side from front (right side from front sloping over garage from roof)

stuart45

Is that the back of the house? It looks from inside like there's cross gables.

bobster2

stuart45 said:

. You wouldn't normally take a wall into the roof space and leave it one course above for no reason.

How about support for an old cold water tank - since removed?

I once had a 1970s house where they'd extended one load-bearing wall into the loft space to support the tank.

stuart45

It could have been for a water tank, although that is a good reason to do it. Not sure if they would have stuck it right next to the trap hatch, but it's possible.