Create a new door on the basement floor, stability.

[erobwen]

I am planning to install a new door on the basement level. This might be necessary because the boiler is almost worn out and since the garage was bricked up, there is no place to bring in a new boiler. The following picture shows how it looks, and I want the new door where the man is standing. The cross-marked area on the gable is the old bricked-up garage.



Now the question is whether the wall will hold up for this?

Technical conditions are:

• Basement ceiling: Cast concrete slab, thickness at a height of 15 cm
• Basement wall: Masonry concrete blocks with a thickness of 22 cm. Measured height: 212 cm (210 according to drawing).
• Foundation footing: 50 cm x 20 cm according to the drawing but it seems to go deeper in some places. 30-40 cm.
• Basement inner floor: Appears to be level with the foundation footing. Possibly the same casting.
• X-Marked area on the gable is a bricked-up garage.
• The floor above consists of wooden constructions (light construction?).
• Door size: 10x210
• Window size 53x79 cm, distance to gable first window = 2 m, second window = 4.34 m

(a Google SketchUp file is attached which contains more measurements)

So, the question is whether it would be safe to install the door where shown on the picture, 22 cm from the window?

The reason I don't want to convert the window into a door is that there is a radiator below it. The question is how close to the window I can go before the pillar between the window/door becomes too narrow to hold together? Is it an option to place the window/door directly adjacent and remove all the mortar in between?

Grateful for insights.

 

[erobwen]

PS: It appears that the window opening on the basement level ends flush with the cast concrete ceiling, as in the picture. Are there beams embedded in the concrete slab, or does this mean there are no beams above the windows and former garage?

 

[fahlis]

It might mean that the slab is reinforced so that it serves as its own edge beam. Do you have access to the reinforcement drawing?

 

[erobwen]

The house was built in 1956. What building codes were there for concrete slabs at that time? I'm trying to get more detailed drawings from the municipality, but it's possible that there are no descriptions of the reinforcement bars.

If I can't find such a drawing, is it still possible to figure out how well-reinforced a concrete slab is?

Can I risk assuming that the reinforcement is sufficient for one more opening?

 

[erobwen]

The following can be read in the technical description:

Basement floor slab: 15 cm thick cross-reinforced concrete slab. The ceilings are limewashed. Wood shavings filling.

Can any conclusions be drawn from that?