We have a plastered plank house built in 1938, 1.5 stories with a basement, and are planning some renovation work. Does anyone here have experience with how this type of house is constructed? We will later hire a professional for safety reasons, but during the planning work, it would be good to have some understanding of the construction, such as which walls are load-bearing, exterior walls and/or interior walls, etc. How did they build? What visible signs can reveal more about the house's construction?
Hello there.
Yes, we've worked a lot on a house from 1936. There are quite a few pictures of the house's construction on our web. Check out the Diary 2003 in particular. If you need high-resolution images of anything, we can arrange that quite easily. The images on the web are slightly compressed so as not to drive some modem users completely crazy.
What are the measurements of the house? You probably have a heart wall running through the middle of the house. You will likely find this wall in the basement as well.
If you have a wooden floor structure, there are likely joists resting on the outer wall and the heart wall.
Yes, we've worked a lot on a house from 1936. There are quite a few pictures of the house's construction on our web. Check out the Diary 2003 in particular. If you need high-resolution images of anything, we can arrange that quite easily. The images on the web are slightly compressed so as not to drive some modem users completely crazy.
What are the measurements of the house? You probably have a heart wall running through the middle of the house. You will likely find this wall in the basement as well.
If you have a wooden floor structure, there are likely joists resting on the outer wall and the heart wall.
Thank you, it reminds me a bit of our house. Impressive work you’ve done!
The house is 160 + 90 with the dimensions 13 x 7 meters.
Yes, it's a wooden joist structure and a heart wall, I assume, would run perpendicular to this? Possibly, I've found such a wall that is partially replaced by an iron beam in a room in the basement. Is it likely that the walls on the ground floor that align with the wooden joist structure are thus not load-bearing?
The house is 160 + 90 with the dimensions 13 x 7 meters.
Yes, it's a wooden joist structure and a heart wall, I assume, would run perpendicular to this? Possibly, I've found such a wall that is partially replaced by an iron beam in a room in the basement. Is it likely that the walls on the ground floor that align with the wooden joist structure are thus not load-bearing?
Exactly. That is my somewhat limited experience. I've only dismantled and worked on ONE house.
Sure. The builder could theoretically have placed the studs in multiple directions and thus have more than one heart wall/load-bearing interior wall...
You probably have joists in the floor structure spanning over 3.5 meters if the heart wall is in the middle.
Our heart wall isn't completely straight in the basement, and there are also two doors in the wall. Above the doors, there are steel beams above the door frames to take the loads above the doors. http://www.fasting65.se/byggdagbok/images/malskisser/kallare_030605.gif
This is how the basement looked before the renovation: http://www.fasting65.se/byggdagbok/images/forutsattningar/plan2.jpg
Note that we moved the staircase. When we demolished the old staircase and the wall to the boiler room, we had to extend the beams that rested on the stair wall.
Sure. The builder could theoretically have placed the studs in multiple directions and thus have more than one heart wall/load-bearing interior wall...
You probably have joists in the floor structure spanning over 3.5 meters if the heart wall is in the middle.
Our heart wall isn't completely straight in the basement, and there are also two doors in the wall. Above the doors, there are steel beams above the door frames to take the loads above the doors. http://www.fasting65.se/byggdagbok/images/malskisser/kallare_030605.gif
This is how the basement looked before the renovation: http://www.fasting65.se/byggdagbok/images/forutsattningar/plan2.jpg
Note that we moved the staircase. When we demolished the old staircase and the wall to the boiler room, we had to extend the beams that rested on the stair wall.
Have you checked with the city planning office's archives? With a bit of luck, there might be detailed drawings and building descriptions there.
We just got such details about our house from 1933 (Spånga Stockholm). The previous owner had no documents whatsoever about the house.
In our case, there was, among other things, a 6-page handwritten description of everything from the quality of the fill under the basement slab to the dimensions of the roof battens.
We just got such details about our house from 1933 (Spånga Stockholm). The previous owner had no documents whatsoever about the house.
In our case, there was, among other things, a 6-page handwritten description of everything from the quality of the fill under the basement slab to the dimensions of the roof battens.
Surely the municipality must have drawings if the house was built in '38. Check with them again. It's possible they ended up in some archive that no one wants to bother looking through. :-/Frippen said:
Also, check with Lantmäteriet if the property previously had a different designation. Maybe that's the solution to the problem.
The only thing available from the municipality about the house is remodeling plans from an extension in 1953, which unfortunately do not tell much about the house's construction otherwise. But with some advice and eventually a structural engineer on site, we hope to figure out which walls need to be load-bearing. I've tried to find literature about this type of house, which is not entirely uncommon, but without success. Does anyone have suggestions for good literature?