Hi I’d like to take out the spandrel panel under my stair to make a cupboard. Nothing too special, I just need a place to hide the hoover. Our stairs already have a loo under them, pic attached so I don’t have a lot of room, but probably just enough. but when having a look through the gaps between the risers and the treads it looks like there is brickwork under there running parallel to a riser but a fair distance away from where the wall behind the loo should be. Any ideas? I daren’t open up the space if I’m going to find bricks that I can’t remove, but I can’t work out why they’d be there?! It’s a 1930’s semi if that helps? Thanks Rach
It probably is brickwork, but they will be easy enough to remove with a hammer and cold chisel. Take them out, they aren’t supporting anything.
Thanks Jord86 Any ideas why they’d be under there in the first place? I’ll get on with the project now that I don’t need to worry about them
Seemed to be the done thing 100 odd years ago to build the dwarf wall or spandrel framing in brick, was done with whatever material was close to hand or cheaper. Just watch you don’t damage the wall backing onto the toilet when you start banging.
you wont get much room in that space you may have pipework in there you probably wont get an upright vacuum in their' upright or lying down whatever height and width you have in the toilet at the low wall the other side will be about 5" lowers but same width [4" stud and plasterboard] i would think about an inspection hole in the toilet as not constantly visible if you decide not to do it after inspection
I think I’ve found out what the bricks under my stairs were for! It seems as if it was an old coal shed that’s been bricked up on the exterior wall. At least that’s my best bet. my next conundrum is whether the bricks are toothed into the exterior wall where the entrance to the coal shed would’ve been. Any thoughts? I’ve attached a photo. Hopefully it’ll be clear what I mean!