Hello forum!
I have a load-bearing lightweight concrete wall that runs through the house (heart wall), and I'd like to partially modify it to conceal some ventilation ducts. Is it possible, and how do I ensure the house doesn't collapse?
The wall in question is made of lightweight concrete blocks and is 30 cm thick. The blocks are slightly thinner than 30 cm and then there's plaster on both sides. A larger door opening already exists in the wall since the house was built, and above this opening is a lightweight concrete beam, which I assume is well reinforced. The ceiling height is 240 cm, and the heart wall supports a concrete floor for the upper floor (prefabricated floor with H-shaped concrete beams at 1000 mm centers and cassettes in between). The wall in question is 7 meters long, and the existing door opening is about 120 cm wide.
What I'd like to do is make a recess from 60 cm height (above the floor) to 220 cm height. The recess, if technically possible, will be 150-160 mm wide and 200 mm deep along its entire length of 160 cm. If it's relevant, I don't plan to affect the last stone towards the ceiling and not the entire depth of the wall, but on the other hand, I suppose the remaining lightweight concrete there doesn't play a significant role in terms of structural strength. I would guess there's about 1 meter of unaffected wall between my project and the door today. The purpose, as mentioned, is to embed a vertical spiral duct along this distance.
So the question is obviously: Is it technically possible to do this, and what measures do I need to take to prevent the house from collapsing? What do I need to reinforce? Attached is a sketch approximately showing how it looks.
// Mats
I have a load-bearing lightweight concrete wall that runs through the house (heart wall), and I'd like to partially modify it to conceal some ventilation ducts. Is it possible, and how do I ensure the house doesn't collapse?
The wall in question is made of lightweight concrete blocks and is 30 cm thick. The blocks are slightly thinner than 30 cm and then there's plaster on both sides. A larger door opening already exists in the wall since the house was built, and above this opening is a lightweight concrete beam, which I assume is well reinforced. The ceiling height is 240 cm, and the heart wall supports a concrete floor for the upper floor (prefabricated floor with H-shaped concrete beams at 1000 mm centers and cassettes in between). The wall in question is 7 meters long, and the existing door opening is about 120 cm wide.
What I'd like to do is make a recess from 60 cm height (above the floor) to 220 cm height. The recess, if technically possible, will be 150-160 mm wide and 200 mm deep along its entire length of 160 cm. If it's relevant, I don't plan to affect the last stone towards the ceiling and not the entire depth of the wall, but on the other hand, I suppose the remaining lightweight concrete there doesn't play a significant role in terms of structural strength. I would guess there's about 1 meter of unaffected wall between my project and the door today. The purpose, as mentioned, is to embed a vertical spiral duct along this distance.
So the question is obviously: Is it technically possible to do this, and what measures do I need to take to prevent the house from collapsing? What do I need to reinforce? Attached is a sketch approximately showing how it looks.
// Mats
No one with an idea?
What I've figured out so far is that considering the floor above is constructed of H-beams resting with C/C 100cm on the wall (the beams extend perpendicular from the wall) that I want to affect, the weakening of the structure should be quite marginal if I make my cuts between two H-beams. The pressure from the floor above should remain the same, so the compressive strength the blocks are subjected to shouldn't be affected, although it's possible that the bending pressure increases since I'm affecting the wall between two beams.
I would really appreciate someone with perhaps some education in this area to comment, the strength of materials course from ages ago unfortunately didn't cover lättbetong
// Mats
What I've figured out so far is that considering the floor above is constructed of H-beams resting with C/C 100cm on the wall (the beams extend perpendicular from the wall) that I want to affect, the weakening of the structure should be quite marginal if I make my cuts between two H-beams. The pressure from the floor above should remain the same, so the compressive strength the blocks are subjected to shouldn't be affected, although it's possible that the bending pressure increases since I'm affecting the wall between two beams.
I would really appreciate someone with perhaps some education in this area to comment, the strength of materials course from ages ago unfortunately didn't cover lättbetong
// Mats