We have just put the gallow brackets in to support chimney in loft.I applied for building notice etc. thought I would do it correctly. We pass for the use of gallow brackets with 225 party wall . Neighbours are still intact and they are gathered in loft . The breast are 1050mm x 300mm. The bco website for our county does not give information that we'll , only 75x75x6mm angles and steel plate and spacing brackets max 600mm. So we got the brackets made up from other council websites stating the height of bracket should be 1 and half times the depth and 12mm resin bolts 100mm into brickwork. So the brackets are 75x75x6mm at 480 x 480 mm and we used 3 prestressed lintels rather then steel plate . Now the bco phoned me today having not inspected the job asking me to get an engineer Calcs done to clarify the brackets are suitable as he not sure of the right angle of the chimney . I did not think at the time to mention their website on gallow brackets or any other councils that state size of bracket. So now I got to find an engineer to say yes they are fine. Is he just trying to put obstacles in the way. And anyone know of any good se in Kent.
He's covering his bottom, but unfortunately, he holds the cards, I fail to see how you can do anything other than get it approved, you might be lucky and find a good SE, who will look at the spec on the website and say it's ok over the phone and just send you approval in the post, for a nominal fee.
We'll I've just been quoted 450.00 plus vat by one se and that's to come out and inspect and to do drawings and if any additional work to be done on our brackets would cost extra . Bco only need confirmation that's it ok to support ?
Well update since February lol, it's now the end of June and finally got the ok with mths of arguing that our bricks are not soft. We found a se and came out he was now doing the communication with bco. As bco was saying our bricks are to soft for gallows. Se came back to us saying bco do not like gallow brackets and we need to install a 6 and 1/2 Mtr rsj in . In the end we took matters in our own hands and got a pull test done by southern drilling ( brilliant company) and it passed the expected loads plus more . Going back now with bco and told them that we were not changing from gallows and we had a pull test done. Once bco see the results they could not argue with it and there attitude towards us had changed as well lol . So the moral of the story is.it may be an easy job but it's getting passed bco is the problem. Forget the strutual engineer and just get pull test done.
Thanks , I wanted to go through the right route so when I peg it my kids don't have the problems when selling. After this experience I've learnt shut your mouth and let the kids deal with it when your gone lol. Now the dirty work starts this weekend knocking it all out .
ha ha! dont forget to upload the photos! I think i will take my stack down when we get around to doing the roof.
even though it's only a small bit of space gaining, it will make a hell of difference in the bedrooms, I will definitely take some photos to post. In the meantime of waiting for all this to be approved by bco we stripped the render of outside walls and re plastered , I'm surprised he did not say anything about that lol we are going to attempt Venetian plaster
Ok, so gallows brackets all good. Now Mr neighbour wants to remove his. So he installs gallows brackets too. You then have a couple of tonnes of bricks supported by a thin wall which has been affected by years of hot smoke... I wouldn't sleep under it. RSJ goes in thickness of ceiling below so does not impinge on space above. (If ceiling is vaulted below so beam can't sit on external walls, then crank them down at the ends to follow line of ceiling below)
Excuse my lack of knowledge regarding chimneys and stacks. Is all of this an alternative to taking the stack down? Not sure what the OP means when he said the 'neighbours (flue?) are gathered' in the loft but am I right that if the stack came down from the roof and then the roof repaired that would allow the chimney breasts to be removed without gallows or RSJ etc being needed? I would have thought that was a more cost effective option than this or, has the op been unlucky with BCO, or does it just seem that way with the benefit of hindsight.
our house is a semi detached and we have 2 chimney breast running up into loft which the 2 meet and join together ( gathered ) neighbours is identical and the breast are interlocked into party wall of 9inches. Only one neighbour can use gallow brackets. Now if the neighbour wanted to do the same they would have to use a different option to gallow brackets and in that case it would be simpler to just take the whole stack down and fix roof. One of our other neighbours corbelled his out 20 yrs ago and never had any problems. To use gallow brackets the neighbours chimney breast would still have be in place.
Rd1 it would of been easier to take stack down but the problem we had is neighbours, trying to explain what we was doing was hard enough even to get the party wall notice signed , trying to explain to them we want the whole stack down would of been more harder and they would of probably refused, as they are not English and she has no husband to help her out on things like this. Cost of job £420 that's including bco and pull test.
Peppapig, Thanks for the reply which make sense and I now see why you arrived at the solution you did, and in the end the cost was not too bad to get what you wanted. Hope the next stage goes well and at least its under your control!
Interesting to see how one would enforce one their neighbour to use RSJ instead of brackets after their own was already on brackets.
Bit of an update still got to patch ceiling up and skim the whole of wall but nearly there . Took 2 days to knock the whole lot out, a day to knock of sooty plaster and to make bricks flush and put floor in and a day to plaster up brickwork.
Have you capped the chimney too? If not should there not be a ventilator into what's left of the chimney in the loft to keep the damp out?
Yes, they were capped ages ago, and there's ventilation at the back of the concrete lintels as the flu bricks are slightly recessed which creates a small gap.
Did you seal over the soot with synthaproof to prevent any soot bleed prior to rendering? otherwise nice job.
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