"Paul King" wrote in message . ..
Just as an aside, and after reading all of the posts in this thread...

I hope that you have adequate Public Liability Insurance!

If you start tinkering with the removal of these joists (even though you
take adequate precautions etc.) and the ceiling caves in on the downstairs
flat (hopefully while the people are out...) there'll be HELL to pay! If
they're in at the time, you might have to pay the next-of-kin!!!

Also, as someone else pointed out - but I don't think you realised his
point, are you the Freeholder of your flat? You can be the owner but not own
the Freehold - in which case you are a Leaseholder. If you are a Leaseholder
you will need to obtain the permission of the Lessor to make the alterations
(which you prolly won't get), and if you do there could be a clause to "make
good" before you sell - which means putting it back the way it was
originally! That may prove difficult if you've already sold the staircase
space.



I see a series of issues here.

Firstly the floor structure will presumably be covered by the party
wall act, so if your neighbour doesnt want any work doing that will
add a couple of grand of legal costs, plus dictate how you do the
work, which can again add costs.

Secondly I dont like your propsed beam extensions at all. The wood
thats there is sized for the half run, significantly bigger would be
wanted for double the run. Also how you propose to tie the 2 might
weaken the structure.

3rd I think it would really help to understand what the problem is:
its not so much collapse, but sag. Wood can sag by a foot or more over
a 20' run without breaking. Joists are sized to limit sag. Sag causes
cracking of plaster ceilings, which are not very flexible.

Rather than try to extend the beams, which would certainly result in
the ceiling breaking up, my first thought would be to remove joist B
entirely (using temp support of course) and put new joists running
full width alongside the old ones, without removing the old ones, and
attach old and new securely together. BUT do not do this unless you
consult a struc eng who says its ok in your particular case to do it,
as it might not be.

There is one more issue: I dont know what size the joists are now, nor
what build regs says about you doing this, but you might possibly find
that to conform to BRs you'd need to put bigger wood in that is there
presently. If you should get caught in this trap, theres always
steelwork, flitch beams, hardwood, etc.


Regards, NT