Those who have decided to start construction or carry out redevelopment in an already erected building should know what a load-bearing wall is and the dangers of its destruction. The purpose of a load-bearing wall is the ability to take on loads from other parts of the building, floors and roof. In order not to face the danger of destruction of the building, before starting work you need to determine which walls are load-bearing and carry out all the planned activities without touching these structures.
What is the difference
Walls are the main structural part of a building, but not all of them are able to withstand the load coming from the floors and roof. For this purpose, each building is equipped with load-bearing walls. Partitions that can only withstand the load of their own weight help to divide the space in a built house. Such walls are called self-supporting. The purpose of each non-load-bearing wall is to serve as a space delimiter, if necessary, simply to highlight a separate room.
Simply put, load-bearing walls are structures on which something rests. In every building, load-bearing and non-load-bearing walls play an important role, but if the load-bearing wall is a reliable support, a high-quality frame of the building, then the non-load-bearing wall is a partition, which, if desired, can be demolished during redevelopment without causing damage to the building. All walls are divided into load-bearing, self-supporting and non-load-bearing. Already by the name it becomes clear which of them are built in order to take on the main load.
Such a partition can be erected from:
- bricks,
- aerated concrete.
As self-supporting walls I install in panel houses monolithic slabs. Such curtain walls can be used to create additional passage by cutting openings into them and installing doors.
Correctly recognizing which walls are load-bearing means successfully carrying out redevelopment without disturbing building codes and rules, without risking creating a situation the end result of which would be the destruction of the building. , which means changing the distribution of the load, and this will lead to skewing of the building, collapse of the ceiling and cracking of the remaining permanent structures.
They ensure the safety of not only the apartment in which renovation is underway or redevelopment is planned. The safety of dwellings located on the lower floors depends on their quality and integrity. Main difference load-bearing structures from self-supporting - . Knowing the differences is not enough; you need to be able to correctly determine which wall is load-bearing.
It is necessary to know exactly which walls can be demolished during redevelopment and which should remain untouched, at what thickness it is permissible to make an opening in the wall, and when it is too dangerous to carry out such work.
There are certain requirements that I impose on load-bearing walls:
- Strength and stability.
- Compliance with all fire safety standards.
- High level of heat, hydro, sound insulation.
Another feature of the load-bearing wall, due to which such structures differ, is the uniform distribution of the horizontal load exerted by the floor slabs. An important criterion strength, reliability and stability is the thickness of the load-bearing wall. This value is set for brick, monolithic and panel interior walls.
Strict adherence to established standards makes it easier to determine the load-bearing wall in any building or room.
Definition
Having learned what a load-bearing wall is, you can understand how important it is to build this structure in strict accordance with all existing norms and rules. Such walls are a natural continuation of the building itself, the beginning of which is the foundation. To avoid great difficulties and troubles in the process of redevelopment, you need to know how to determine load-bearing wall in the apartment. In most cases, it is enough to carefully study the technical documentation and determine the location of load-bearing walls on the building plan. However, it happens that there is no plan and you have to independently determine the quality and purpose of the erected structures.
The peculiarity of the construction of panel buildings is that reinforced concrete panels are used as a supporting structure in a monolithic house. Their thickness ranges from 100 to 200 mm. Structures made of gypsum concrete panels act as interior partitions, and their thickness does not exceed 80-100 mm. Thus, by measuring the thickness of the wall, you can recognize the load-bearing wall, the demolition of which in such a building is strictly prohibited. Non-compliance established rules will lead to inevitable deflection and collapse of the ceiling.
One of the most important indicators is the thickness of the load-bearing walls in brick houses. To distinguish a load-bearing wall, you need to know its thickness, but it is better to have a construction plan on which all load-bearing structures are marked. Self-supporting walls in an apartment, as a rule, are much thinner than permanent structures. The thickness of the walls that bear the load from their own weight varies from 5 cm to 400 mm. Such a partition can be built from plasterboard, but more often it is a wall built from brick (half-brick masonry).
An experienced craftsman will tell you how to find out whether a brick house is a load-bearing wall or not, but the size of the structure will also help you understand this. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that the thickness of a brick wall is a multiple of this brick parameter, plus the thickness of the adhesive layer and finishing material. Thus, it is possible to find out which wall is in front of the builders. The thickness of the partition does not exceed 380 mm, and for a load-bearing wall given size is minimal. The maximum thickness of a load-bearing wall in a brick house reaches 640 mm. The peculiarity of this structure is that an opening can be made in such walls. This is justified by the possibility of providing additional reinforcement to maintain uniform distribution of horizontal loads.
Their parameters will help you distinguish which walls can be demolished and which are strictly prohibited:
- from 80 to 380 mm - an interior partition that can be demolished if necessary;
- from 380 to 510 mm - internal load-bearing wall, subject to demolition subject to high-quality strengthening;
- from 510 to 640 mm - external load-bearing wall.
Brick houses or built according to a constructive plan, distinctive feature which is the presence of 3 longitudinal load-bearing walls (on the plan green color) and transverse walls called stiffening diaphragms (highlighted in blue).
Owners of apartments whose windows faced the front side of the house had the opportunity to build an extension or even make an additional window. Get more detailed answers to everything existing issues you can by watching the video.
When starting work on housing redevelopment, you need to carefully study the apartment plan, which indicates the dimensions and purpose of the walls; if there is no opportunity to familiarize yourself with the documentation, then you should not make responsible decisions without measuring the thickness of the walls.
Today, old panel houses still occupy a large share of the housing stock in our country. Inhabitants of Khrushchev apartments, cramped small area their apartments, they are trying to redesign their home, combining the rooms into a single space.
The redevelopment involves the demolition of fences. Load-bearing walls in Khrushchev, according to their name, carry the load from the structure of the house.
Thin walls serve as partitions that can be demolished without disturbing the load-bearing capacity of the five-story building's frame. In this article we will talk about whether it is possible to demolish load-bearing walls in old panel houses, and how best to do this.
What are load-bearing walls
The lower the floor, the thicker the load-bearing wall If you live in such an apartment, you can easily determine which walls are load-bearing and which serve as partitions. How to determine a load-bearing wall? V panel house 5 floors have a transverse dimension of 120 mm or more. The lower the floor, the thicker the walls.
So that you do not have to worry about determining the main vertical fences, contact the BTI. There you can get a copy of the apartment plan, where you can see the location of the load-bearing walls.
IN technical passport There is also a layout drawing. The technical passport is an integral part of the general package of documents for housing ownership and must be present for every apartment owner.
Demolition of walls in panel houses
The dismantling of vertical fences is usually caused by the need to combine rooms into one spacious living room or large hall.
There are often options for redevelopment of living space with the aim of turning an apartment into one common room- studio.
That is, all the dividing walls are demolished. The bathroom and toilet are combined into a common bathroom.
Dismantling and moving partitions
To remove the partition, you will need the following tool:
- hammer drill with attachments;
- hammer;
- metal wedges;
- grinder with an abrasive wheel for metal.
Use a hammer to knock down a layer of plaster and dismantle the masonry Demolition of the fence is carried out in several steps:
- A hammer drill with a metal blade knocks down a layer of plaster.
- The brickwork is dismantled from top to bottom. Using a hammer drill in jackhammer mode, cement joints are broken. The brick is removed and placed in the corner of the room.
- To avoid damage from falling bricks floor covering, the floor near the partition is covered with some soft material.
- If the partition is made of cinder block, perform the same actions.
- When monolithic wall knock down the concrete, then cut off the reinforcement with an abrasive wheel.
- They remove garbage, take out bricks and pieces of concrete.
It is better to make a new partition in another place from plasterboard mounted on a metal profile frame.
Demolition of load-bearing wall
Demolish walls based on a copy of the apartment plan Dismantling of load-bearing fences must be documented.
Otherwise, the homeowner may be fined.
And if the demolition entails the destruction of the structure of the house, then they will be subject to criminal punishment.
In order for the demolition of load-bearing structures to become legal, a number of actions must be performed:
- Get a copy of the apartment plan from your local BTI office.
- Order at design organization development of technical documentation for implementation.
- Obtain permission from local authorities to carry out work according to the project.
- Demolish the fence.
- Completion of work must be documented with an appropriate work acceptance certificate.
- Based on the act, make changes to the layout of the apartment in the technical passport.
Dismantling of load-bearing walls is carried out only in accordance with the procedure established by law. Load-bearing walls in Khrushchev-era apartment buildings are demolished only in one case, when both apartments belong to the same owner.
Technology for dismantling a load-bearing wall in a Khrushchev building
Options for load-bearing fencing in Khrushchev and other panel houses are carried out in two ways. For more information on how walls are dismantled in Khrushchev-era buildings, watch this video:
Inserting a load-bearing beam
After receiving permits, the following work begins:
- If load-bearing fences are adjacent to the walls on the sides, then in their upper parts under the floor slabs, recesses are made (the masonry or concrete is cut out with a jackhammer).
- The lower plane of the cutout must correspond to the calculated supporting area of the crossbar. The beam design must meet the project requirements.
- The bolt is inserted into side openings. The crossbar can be reinforced concrete or made of a metal I-beam with stiffening ribs.
- Metal wedges are driven into the support areas of the beam in order to obtain maximum expansion. This achieves a smooth transition of the upper load from the wall to the beam.
- They begin to dismantle the masonry or remove the concrete with a jackhammer.
- The reinforcement is cut with an abrasive wheel.
- After dismantling the walls, the trash is taken out and finishing work begins.
Installation of vertical supports
Instead of a load-bearing fence, support columns are installed in the corners of the room. To ensure that the process of transferring the load from the wall smoothly moves to the supporting platforms of the columns, jacks in the form of hydraulic racks are used. Such jacks can be rented from a construction company. For more information on how to make an opening in a load-bearing wall, watch this video:
The order of work is as follows:
- jacks in an amount corresponding to the upper floor slabs are placed on both sides of the wall;
- The hydraulic racks rest their upper platforms against the floor slabs. The load smoothly flows onto the shoulders of the jacks;
- dismantle the fence;
- install supports in the form of columns; support platforms are located in the middle of the joining seams of the slabs;
- in case of a large span of flooring, a beam is laid on the columns.
In order to ensure safety measures, professionals who have documents confirming their qualification level are allowed to perform this type of work.
At first glance, it is quite difficult to determine the load-bearing wall in a house. If they want to make adjustments to the layout and design of the apartment, the owners want to demolish several walls.
The main thing is that the wall does not turn out to be load-bearing. Removing intermediate partitions does not have the same effect on the destruction of the building structure. Load-bearing wall is a support element for the entire structure of the building that carries the load upper floors and distributes it to the lower ones. At the initial stage of redevelopment, it is important to determine which walls can be removed and which need to be preserved.
Before initial stage construction you need to know how to determine a load-bearing wall in an apartment? Global redevelopment of multi-storey buildings entails a lot of consequences and difficulties in design, especially if you carry out all the stages yourself. Redevelopment technology is more complex, requires detailed knowledge and limits the implementation of your own ideas. In panel, monolithic and multi-storey buildings, redevelopment is more difficult to carry out, since it is necessary to obtain permission and coordinate the construction with the BTI authorities.
Only professional craftsmen can correctly determine which wall is load-bearing. The builders of the InnovaStroy company, together with the BTI authorities, carry out the redevelopment of apartments and private houses of any complexity. The company's specialists will make calculations, design and develop a detailed plan for future development. An inspection and determination of the possibility of realizing the client’s wishes are carried out already on the first visit to the site. If nuances arise and there is a need for urgent paperwork, the developers of the InnovaStroy company are also ready to provide support to the client. It is necessary to determine which wall is load-bearing in the apartment at the first stage of registering the property. Redeveloped properties are more difficult to sell. And if there is delay in completing the documents, fines and obligations are imposed on the owner.
There are several ways to determine the load-bearing wall in a house:
1. We determine the load-bearing wall according to the structural plan of the house.
If the document is not on hand, it can be found in the authorities:
- City Capital Construction Department;
- Executive committee.
Knowledge construction drawings, will help the owner deal with load-bearing walls and the technical data sheet.
You can determine a load-bearing wall in a house by its characteristics:
- Thickness - the parameter is measured without plaster and internal finishing materials. Masters completely clean the walls before taking measurements or know the exact parameters.
In a house with brick partitions and base, all walls thicker than 38 cm are considered load-bearing. Builders determine the thickness by counting the bricks laid out in a row.
How to determine a load-bearing wall in a brick house?
Brick size – 12 cm;
- 250 mm walls: 2 bricks + joint (10 mm);
- 350 mm walls: 3 bricks + 2 seams;
- 510 mm walls: 4 bricks + 3 seams;
- 640 mm walls: 5 bricks + 4 seams;
Interior partitions, built from blocks or bricks, are only 12-18 mm. The walls between neighboring apartments are not much thicker - 25 mm.
In the building monolithic type Determining the load-bearing wall in a house is somewhat more difficult, since they use different values during construction.
Walls exceeding a thickness of 20 cm are load-bearing. However, it will help to understand more precisely architectural plan project, because the nuances modern construction may include various options deviations from standard sizes.
Owners of city apartments often have a question: how to determine the load-bearing wall in a panel house? Only an experienced architectural engineer can answer the question. In a panel-type house, all walls thicker than 12-14 cm are considered load-bearing. Carrying out redevelopment in a panel-type apartment is often much more difficult. The partitions are usually up to 10 cm.
2.Location relative to others;
All external walls are always load-bearing. Besides external walls the buildings make up its box and border on the front side of the building. The main walls of the apartment are those facing the staircase or neighboring dwellings.
3.According to the design of the beam overlap
All load-bearing walls are clearly perpendicular to the main structure of the support slabs. The top slabs rest on the walls with their shortened side.
What do openings in load-bearing walls indicate?
Once load-bearing walls have been identified, the owner is solely responsible for damage, deformation or pressure on the elements. Creating openings and arches in a load-bearing wall entails a lot of negative impacts on the frame of the building and negatively affects the entire structure. The appearance of cracks, shrinkage of the house, destruction façade elements begins from the impact on the load-bearing wall. Depending on the duration of the building’s existence, the impact on the load-bearing wall can be completely destructive. This especially applies to multi-storey buildings old type: Khrushchev, Stalin, etc.
It is strictly prohibited for the BTI authorities to carry out complete demolition of the load-bearing space. If the redevelopment is caused by the need to replace the supporting structure, it is necessary to design the space using reliable support columns. The cross-section, dimensions and thickness of the columns are calculated by specialists from authorized bodies. The columns must support and systematically distribute the weight of all rising floors.
Typical designs of panel buildings
Before defining a load-bearing wall in a panel house , We recommend that you read standard projects panel buildings, which vary in code. First, you need to determine the series of the structure, and then familiarize yourself with the detailed version of the drawing and its features. The layout of apartments and a detailed plan of supporting structures in the drawings are highlighted using color.
Panel house project code:
- 90-05;
- 90-06;
- 90-07;
- 90-022;
- 90-023;
- 90-031;
- 90-045;
The description of each project code includes the presence of designations of the main load-bearing walls and partitions. How to determine a load-bearing wall on a plan? It is necessary to examine the drawing of the apartment in detail and indicate the thickness of the walls. On paper, load-bearing walls are indicated by denser, solid lines.
Opening or niche in a load-bearing wall?
After determining the load-bearing wall in an apartment, many ask the question of creating an opening or an additional niche in the load-bearing wall. Creating a built-in opening in many apartments in panel houses is acceptable. Compliance with the requirements of regulatory authorities is strictly mandatory. It is allowed to perform horizontal and vertical grooves on the walls of the load-bearing structure. Drilling into walls and installing internal dowels is also allowed. Individual design of a house or apartment must be entrusted to professionals who bear full responsibility for dismantling and forming load-bearing surfaces.
Ideas for designing openings in a load-bearing wall
It is prohibited to completely dismantle a load-bearing wall. However, when creating openings, there are options for decorative filling of load-bearing structures. One of the stylish proposals of designers is the formation of an aquarium system on part or the entire wall.
Options for placing aquariums between load-bearing columns:
- The aquarium in the space between the column and the additional interior partition looks stylish and decorates the apartment attractively.
- The addition of furniture with an emphasis on the aquarium system fits harmoniously into the design.
- When expanding an apartment due to the space of a balcony or loggia, window sill systems in the form of aquarium stands are often used. The built-in aquarium looks amazing and captivates the eye with a living picture.
- Built-in aqua systems in niches of load-bearing walls look great in bedrooms and living rooms.
Knowing all the rules, it is easy to determine which wall is load-bearing and planning further design will be easier with the involvement of craftsmen. The InnovaStroy company carries out turnkey repair work of any level of complexity in apartments, houses and offices. Planning and redevelopment of buildings does not cause difficulties for craftsmen. In addition, clients are offered innovative developments and improved comfort of living in an apartment. The company’s specialists make the client’s stay comfortable, and the list repair work does not cause difficulties. When the question arises of how to determine whether a load-bearing wall is or not, it is necessary to determine the type of structure and know its features.
How to determine whether a load-bearing wall is in a Khrushchev building?
- It must be remembered that all the walls of the building box are load-bearing;
- Walls facing staircases, marching openings are also the main ones;
- The partition between the balcony, loggia and kitchen (room) carries a small supporting load, so it can be easily dismantled. However, before carrying out construction demolition of the wall, it is necessary to ensure high-quality insulation the entire space so that the cold flow does not cause damage to other walls of the room.
- You can easily dismantle the interior opening in the bathroom. The thickness of the wall can be 10-12 cm, but does not serve any main purposes.
- Panel houses most unfavorable for demolishing walls.
- Before starting to dismantle any walls, it is important to understand that a supporting structure is required.
To answer the question of how to determine a load-bearing wall in an apartment and how many main walls can be located in a building, we recommend contacting the professional consultants of the InnovaStroy company. How to determine a load-bearing wall in a brick house? Using the above methods it will be easier. Note that the main indicators of a brick structure are easily replaced by support beams, metal or stone. When forming decorated aqua systems, there is a possibility additional pressure on the design. It is important to realistically assess the fragility of the structure, and, if necessary, carry out additional strengthening of individual walls of the building. Installation must be done with caution in an independent way. An error in determining the load capacity of a wall has a negative impact on the condition of neighboring apartments and the entire floor. If you are in doubt about how to determine the load-bearing wall on the plan, we recommend that you seek advice from the InnovaStroy company.
Studio apartment we demolish walls without damage!
In modern designs they are extremely popular small apartments open spaces called studios. This layout is convenient for a family of 2-3 people. Many people want to remodel large apartments in the studio, dividing the interior space with furniture. This option requires complete or partial demolition of the walls, leaving only the box of the apartment.
It is necessary to understand that such redevelopment requires the creation supporting structures to distribute the main weight of the upper floors. Many professionals offer clients the use frame technologies and the creation of decorative columns and built-in niches. This option harmoniously delimits the space and does not violate the requirements of higher authorities of technical bureaus.
Let us remember that the older the structure, the more significant the fragility of the main walls. In old-type buildings, the main structures are not allowed. Therefore, dismantling is prohibited without additional supports and a detailed calculation of the weight of the floors. Masters recommend seeking help from professional architects who will help resolve the issue of redevelopment without additional costs or violations of requirements.
Renovating old-style apartments is always a difficult task, requiring the involvement of third parties. We do not recommend carrying out large-scale wall demolition activities on your own at one time. Remember that by turning to professionals, you preserve not only your own comfort, but also the comfort of your neighbors.
Load-bearing wall (Fig. 1)– main load-bearing enclosing vertical design building, resting on and transferring the load from the floors and the own weight of the wall to the foundation, separating adjacent rooms in the building and protecting them from impact external environment.
Self-supporting wall (Fig. 2)– external enclosing vertical structure protecting interior spaces building from the influence of the external environment, resting and transferring the load from its own weight to the foundation.
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| Fig.2. Self-supporting wall (outer wall rests on the foundation, and the ceiling is adjacent to the wall) |
Curtain wall (Fig. 3)- an external wall resting on the ceiling within one floor with a floor height of no more than 6 m. (at a higher floor height, these walls are considered self-supporting) and protect the building from the outside from the influence of the external environment.
Partition- an internal vertical enclosing curtain wall resting on the ceiling and separating adjacent rooms in the building.
In buildings with self-supporting and non-load-bearing external walls, loads from coatings, ceilings, etc. transferred to the frame or transverse structures of buildings.
In a house, the walls that stand on the foundation and on which the ceilings rest will be carriers.
And walls standing on a foundation without the ceiling resting on them will be self-supporting.
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| Fig.3. Curtain wall (external wall rests on the floor slab) |
Walls of different structural purposes carry different loads. To provide the necessary bearing capacity For different walls choose a certain wall thickness and the strength of the materials used.
For example, it is recommended to make internal and external load-bearing walls of buildings made of aerated concrete blocks with a height of up to 3 floors inclusive from blocks of classes of compressive strength not lower than B2.5, with glue or mortar of a grade not lower than M75; at a height of up to 2 floors inclusive - not lower than B2 with glue or mortar of a grade not lower than M50.
For self-supporting walls of buildings up to 3 floors high, the class of blocks must be at least B2.
- What is a “load-bearing wall” and why is it needed?
- How to find out the location of load-bearing walls in a house?
- Panel
- Brick
- Monolithic
- What actions can be performed with load-bearing walls?
- How to coordinate redevelopment?
From the author: Hello, dear readers. We all lovingly love our home, take care of it, and do cosmetic repairs. Sometimes simple things are not enough for us finishing works, and we begin to think about remodeling the apartment. It comes in two types: either the construction of additional walls, or the demolition of some of the existing ones. In our realities, the second option is most often used. Apartments in many houses are quite small, sometimes it is almost impossible to turn around in such an area. That's why people are trying to get out of the situation with the help of redevelopment.
Is it possible to determine from the BTI documents whether a load-bearing wall is or not?
There is no one generally accepted designation of load-bearing walls on plans. Unfortunately, there is no one generally accepted designation of load-bearing walls on plans that would be used by all design enterprises, developers and other organizations, therefore the owner often has to sit for a long time over the received drawings before being able to find out which the wall is load-bearing and which one is not. On the architectural and construction plans of the detailed design for construction apartment building Load-bearing walls are usually highlighted with special shading.
On plans from the BTI, such structures are indicated as thicker than simple interior partitions, but not always. There are often cases when a wall is indicated by a thin line on the plans of old houses, but in reality it is load-bearing.
Load-bearing wall in the registration certificate for the apartment
Attention
The first thing you need to pay attention to when examining the septum is its thickness. In panel houses, load-bearing walls are always much thicker than ordinary interior partitions.
Info
Load-bearing wall in a panel house According to building rules, the minimum thickness of a load-bearing partition in a panel house must be at least 12 cm. This is the net size, excluding facing materials on the wall, of which there can be quite a lot (plaster, wallpaper, paint, etc.)
d.).
Important
Interior partitions that do not perform load-bearing functions have a thickness of 8-10 cm (excluding finishing). That is, to determine the load-bearing walls, all internal partitions must be measured, having previously cleared them of facing materials.
Only after determination can you begin planning overhaul, choosing suitable methods, means and solutions for the reconstruction of a residential property.
Load-bearing wall in a house - how to determine which walls are load-bearing?
All Khrushchev buildings are characterized by the same layout, and the supporting structures in them are usually only those that separate the apartment from other apartments, landing and streets, and all internal partitions simply separate the rooms and can be safely dismantled. In Khrushchev, the load-bearing wall always has a thickness of more than 12 cm without finishing layers 4 Determining the purpose of the wall according to apartment plans It is believed that the load-bearing wall in any apartment can easily be found using technical documentation, for example, the floor plan of an apartment building.
This is true, but to determine the functions of internal partitions you need to be able to work with project documentation, understand symbols, read diagrams, etc.
Symbols on BTI plans
Both of these types have similar Constructive decisions and are made in the form of three longitudinal load-bearing and transverse walls, which support the longitudinal ones and, basically, are also load-bearing. Also, the load-bearing walls are the walls on which the interfloor floor slabs rest (short side). Usually these are longitudinal load-bearing walls. There is an option when the floor slab rests on reinforced concrete beam rectangular section. Which, in turn, rests on load-bearing walls or brick pillars.
Interior or apartment partitions are usually installed under the beams. Load-bearing walls in a panel house In panel houses, the thickness of internal partitions ranges from 80 mm to 120 mm, made of gypsum concrete panels.
And, internal load-bearing walls are reinforced concrete panels with a thickness of 140, 180 or 200 mm. External load-bearing walls in a panel house have a thickness of 200 mm.
How to determine load-bearing walls in a room
The wall can be marked with a thin line and at the same time be a load-bearing one. Determining load-bearing walls by thickness The second way to find out which wall is load-bearing is by its location and thickness.
Load-bearing walls in a brick house The thickness of the walls in brick houses is a multiple of the size of the brick (120 mm), plus the thickness of the mortar joint (10 mm), if there is more than one masonry. Respectively, brick walls can be 120, 250, 380, 520, 640 mm thick, etc.
Mainly in brick residential buildings internal partitions are made of brick or gypsum concrete panels with a thickness of 80 or 120 mm. Inter-apartment partitions 250 mm thick made of brick or 200 mm thick double panels with an air gap.
Load-bearing walls in a brick house have a thickness of 380 mm. Majority brick houses built according to standard series– these are the so-called “Stalins” and “Khrushchevs”.
How to find out whether a wall is load-bearing or not in order to protect yourself during redevelopment?
Before starting a major renovation, which involves making changes to the layout of the apartment, it is necessary to identify load-bearing walls. According to the law such building construction It is prohibited to dismantle, as it reduces the reliability and durability of the building.
Preliminary determination of the load-bearing structures of the apartment will save the owner from many problems with government agencies that monitor compliance with current building codes and regulations. Content
- 1 How to determine all the load-bearing walls in your apartment?
- 2 Search load-bearing partitions in a panel house
- 3 What walls can be dismantled in a Khrushchev building?
- 4 Determining the purpose of the wall according to apartment plans
- 5 Rules for dismantling internal partitions
1 How to determine all the load-bearing walls in your apartment? Khrushchev and panel houses have load-bearing walls and thin interior partitions.
How to determine if a wall is load-bearing or not?
The walls that mark the boundaries of the apartment and those that look at the staircase are load-bearing, but in some cases only they alone can take on the entire load of the floors, and with all internal partitions possible to work. Load-bearing partitions can also be determined by the thickness of the wall. In this case, the wall thickness should be determined without taking into account plaster coating. In brick houses, the main partitions are those whose thickness exceeds 38 cm.
If the house is built from reinforced concrete panels, then the load-bearing walls in it have a thickness of at least 14 cm, and often these also include those walls that define the boundaries of the bathrooms. IN monolithic houses walls with a thickness of 20 cm are the main ones.
But in such houses it is not enough to rely on only one size, and a wall more than 20 cm thick can only be an ordinary partition.
How to find a load-bearing wall in an apartment and do the redevelopment correctly
To determine the load-bearing walls, it is necessary to use the plan. When remodeling, you must contact specialists for permission to dismantle the partitions. Even if you plan to move the doorway, you need to have certain documents that must be provided by BTI employees or other relevant government agencies. If an illegal redevelopment has been carried out in an apartment, it becomes impossible to sell it, and obtaining permission for redevelopment after its implementation is quite problematic. Any work with walls should be treated with full responsibility, because even the slightest crack in a load-bearing wall can affect the entire structure of the building. Carrying out work with load-bearing walls It is possible to carry out some work on load-bearing walls, however, any actions must be carried out exclusively by competent specialists.
Most often these are single-layer panels made of expanded clay concrete with a thickness of 300-350 mm or multilayer panels consisting of two reinforced concrete panels with a thickness of 60 mm (external) and 80-100 mm (internal), separated by insulation. As a result, load-bearing walls in a panel house have a thickness of 120 mm.
Load-bearing walls in a monolithic house Not everything is clear with load-bearing walls in a monolithic house. It is not always possible to identify them. In addition, they may not exist (for example, in monolithic frame buildings).
In residential monolithic buildings there are various designs. Such as monolithic load-bearing walls, columns, pylons, beams, etc.
The standard thickness of walls and pylons is 200, 250, 300 mm. The diameter of the supporting columns can be more than 300 mm. The thickness of the internal walls, usually made of aerated concrete blocks, ranges from 200 mm. Thus, the thickness of non-load-bearing partitions is less than 200 mm.
How is a load-bearing wall indicated in the technical data sheet?
For more precise definition thickness, you must first clean the surface of all decorative layers: plaster, paint, wallpaper and, especially, drywall. Although finishing does not make such significant adjustments, it can still have a critical effect on the measurement result.
What actions can be performed with load-bearing walls? As mentioned above, the structure that bears the main load is the basis of the entire building. Therefore, it must be handled with extreme care. To begin with, let’s outline those actions that are unacceptable to perform in relation to a load-bearing wall:
- demolish, as this is fraught with loss of stability of the entire building;
- move to another place - for the same reasons as in the previous paragraph;
- groove under wiring or pipes.
But still she is not completely untouchable.
