Hiya,

Firstly, apologies, you'll have to bear with me, i'm a complete novice

I've got a 3 bed semi, and upstairs the door frames are coming away from the
wall... I have done some minor investegation and the plaster has cracked
and come away, as has some of the "light brown" bricks behind that and a
very small amount of the "grey" bricks behind them. They appear to have
just become dry and crumbly and broken up...

Can anybody tell me why this has happened and suggest any ways to fix/stop
it happening again? I know you'll probably need to know more, so please
just ask.

Thanks in advance...
--
Alex

"Alex" wrote in message
...
Hiya,

Firstly, apologies, you'll have to bear with me, i'm a complete novice

I've got a 3 bed semi, and upstairs the door frames are coming away from
the
wall... I have done some minor investegation and the plaster has cracked
and come away, as has some of the "light brown" bricks behind that and a
very small amount of the "grey" bricks behind them. They appear to have
just become dry and crumbly and broken up...

Can anybody tell me why this has happened and suggest any ways to fix/stop
it happening again? I know you'll probably need to know more, so please
just ask.

Oh also, the wall in question is about 2inches thick and the part in
question is the end of the wall that is in between 2 door frames at the end
of the wall... the other side seems to have gone too, but i havent pulled
it all off yet. It doesnt look like its been wet either....
--
Alex

On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 19:43:43 +0100, "Alex"
wrote:

"Alex" wrote in message
...
Hiya,

Firstly, apologies, you'll have to bear with me, i'm a complete novice

I've got a 3 bed semi, and upstairs the door frames are coming away from
the
wall... I have done some minor investegation and the plaster has cracked
and come away, as has some of the "light brown" bricks behind that and a
very small amount of the "grey" bricks behind them. They appear to have
just become dry and crumbly and broken up...

Can anybody tell me why this has happened and suggest any ways to fix/stop
it happening again? I know you'll probably need to know more, so please
just ask.

Oh also, the wall in question is about 2inches thick and the part in
question is the end of the wall that is in between 2 door frames at the end
of the wall... the other side seems to have gone too, but i havent pulled
it all off yet. It doesnt look like its been wet either....
--
Alex

I suggest you rephrase the whole question so that it draws a clearer
picture. It's not at all clear what is going on. 2"-thick walls and
two door frames at one end of the wall don't make a lot of sense. And
where does the water come into the equasion?

"Frank Watson" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 19:43:43 +0100, "Alex"
wrote:

"Alex" wrote in message
...
Hiya,

Firstly, apologies, you'll have to bear with me, i'm a complete novice


I've got a 3 bed semi, and upstairs the door frames are coming away
from
the
wall... I have done some minor investegation and the plaster has
cracked
and come away, as has some of the "light brown" bricks behind that and
a
very small amount of the "grey" bricks behind them. They appear to
have
just become dry and crumbly and broken up...

Can anybody tell me why this has happened and suggest any ways to
fix/stop
it happening again? I know you'll probably need to know more, so
please
just ask.

Oh also, the wall in question is about 2inches thick and the part in
question is the end of the wall that is in between 2 door frames at the
end
of the wall... the other side seems to have gone too, but i havent
pulled
it all off yet. It doesnt look like its been wet either....
--
Alex

I suggest you rephrase the whole question so that it draws a clearer
picture. It's not at all clear what is going on. 2"-thick walls and
two door frames at one end of the wall don't make a lot of sense. And
where does the water come into the equasion?


Sorry yes, I'll try be a bit clearer... Its upstairs, there are 2 bedrooms
split by the wall in question, there is also a cupboard with a water tank in
it... so when looking at the wall, it has a door for the first bedroom,
then 2 inches away a door for the cupboard and 2inches away from that the
door for the other bedroom. The wall is only2-3inches thick between the
rooms.

Water is the only thing i could think off that would make the bricks
crumble, but other than the water tank which pipes arent near this part of
wall there arent any pipes close... there is a cold water tank in the loft
above this wall, but as i said its not wet now.

The "grey" bricks are more like concrete type substance behind the crumbly
ligh brick.

Any better?
--
Alex

"Alex" wrote in message
...
"Frank Watson" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 19:43:43 +0100, "Alex"
wrote:

"Alex" wrote in message
...
Hiya,

Firstly, apologies, you'll have to bear with me, i'm a complete
novice


I've got a 3 bed semi, and upstairs the door frames are coming away
from
the
wall... I have done some minor investegation and the plaster has
cracked
and come away, as has some of the "light brown" bricks behind that
and
a
very small amount of the "grey" bricks behind them. They appear to
have
just become dry and crumbly and broken up...

Can anybody tell me why this has happened and suggest any ways to
fix/stop
it happening again? I know you'll probably need to know more, so
please
just ask.

Oh also, the wall in question is about 2inches thick and the part in
question is the end of the wall that is in between 2 door frames at
the
end
of the wall... the other side seems to have gone too, but i havent
pulled
it all off yet. It doesnt look like its been wet either....
--
Alex

I suggest you rephrase the whole question so that it draws a clearer
picture. It's not at all clear what is going on. 2"-thick walls and
two door frames at one end of the wall don't make a lot of sense. And
where does the water come into the equasion?


Sorry yes, I'll try be a bit clearer... Its upstairs, there are 2
bedrooms
split by the wall in question, there is also a cupboard with a water tank
in
it... so when looking at the wall, it has a door for the first bedroom,
then 2 inches away a door for the cupboard and 2inches away from that the
door for the other bedroom. The wall is only2-3inches thick between the
rooms.

Water is the only thing i could think off that would make the bricks
crumble, but other than the water tank which pipes arent near this part of
wall there arent any pipes close... there is a cold water tank in the loft
above this wall, but as i said its not wet now.

The "grey" bricks are more like concrete type substance behind the crumbly
ligh brick.

Any better?


I too have internal walls built with 2" blocks, black compressed clinker
downstairs and plaster reinforced with straw (! - light brown?) upstairs.
They are rendered with sand and cement and a top coat of plaster. Originally
there had been an identical arrangement to yours - by the time we moved in,
the previous owner had removed the cupboard and moved one bedroom door
along to where the cupboard door was (effectively removing the cupboard from
one bedroom). The old door opening had been filled with 2.5" studding and
hardboard as the wall was so thin. When I came to remove the wall paper, I
realised it was holding the plaster up and the whole wall was crumbling
(mainly because it had been knocked about and the right-angles of the
cupboard walls had been removed).

With hindsight, I should probably have knocked out all the upstairs walls at
that stage and replaced them with stud walls, and I rather wish I had. But
you never do, do you? I bodged it all up as follws:

1. Between the unmoved bedroom door and the new bedroom door/old cupboard
door, I ran coach bolts through frame/end of dividing wall/frame,
counter-boring them into the frame so they would be below the surface and
used them to pinch up the frames on the end of the dividing wall to
stabilise it and then filled the holes so you couldn't see them.

2. Around the changed doorways I restudded with 2" plus studding, the
vertical parts cut overlong so they protruded into the joist area of the
loft and secured them to the joists to give stability to the wall., up to
the edge of the blocks which I secured to the studding. I stripped the loose
plaster on the remaining blocks and covered studded areas with hardboard
again (no depth/strength for plasterboarding) and got a plasterer to
replaster up to the joins as good as possible.

After wall papering it didn't look too bad. The extra stability has
prevented any further deterioration and it's lasted 15 years fine and the
dodgy door way is now banged in and out of by a 13 year old son who didn't
exist back then! It's OK, but, as I said, I should really have knocked all
the walls out and redone them - it wouldn't actually have been that big a
job (I now realise) then.

HTH
--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)

"Alex" wrote in message ...
"Alex" wrote in message
...
Hiya,

Firstly, apologies, you'll have to bear with me, i'm a complete novice

I've got a 3 bed semi, and upstairs the door frames are coming away from
the
wall... I have done some minor investegation and the plaster has cracked
and come away, as has some of the "light brown" bricks behind that and a
very small amount of the "grey" bricks behind them. They appear to have
just become dry and crumbly and broken up...

Can anybody tell me why this has happened and suggest any ways to fix/stop
it happening again? I know you'll probably need to know more, so please
just ask.

Oh also, the wall in question is about 2inches thick and the part in
question is the end of the wall that is in between 2 door frames at the end
of the wall... the other side seems to have gone too, but i havent pulled
it all off yet. It doesnt look like its been wet either....


So you've got 2 layers of strangely coloured bricks and 2 layers of
plaster... all in 2"????

Regards, NT

"Frank Watson" wrote in message
...
On 28 Aug 2003 03:19:05 -0700, (N. Thornton) wrote:

"Alex" wrote in message
...
"Alex" wrote in message
...
Hiya,

Firstly, apologies, you'll have to bear with me, i'm a complete
novice

I've got a 3 bed semi, and upstairs the door frames are coming away
from
the
wall... I have done some minor investegation and the plaster has
cracked
and come away, as has some of the "light brown" bricks behind that
and a
very small amount of the "grey" bricks behind them. They appear to
have
just become dry and crumbly and broken up...

Can anybody tell me why this has happened and suggest any ways to
fix/stop
it happening again? I know you'll probably need to know more, so
please
just ask.

Oh also, the wall in question is about 2inches thick and the part in
question is the end of the wall that is in between 2 door frames at
the end
of the wall... the other side seems to have gone too, but i havent
pulled
it all off yet. It doesnt look like its been wet either....


So you've got 2 layers of strangely coloured bricks and 2 layers of
plaster... all in 2"????

Let's see now.. the plaster is 1/2" thick on each side of the wall.
Total plaster thickness = 1". That leaves 1" for the main substance of
the wall: 1/2" for the grey brick and 1/2" for the light brown skin of
bricks... hmmm.... sump'n ain't right..... ;-)

Not really... there's a 2 inch thick wall but at the end of the wall is the
light brick... so the 2inch bit is just the dark brick and the plaster.
--
Alex

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
Alex wrote:

Hiya,

Firstly, apologies, you'll have to bear with me, i'm a complete novice


I've got a 3 bed semi, and upstairs the door frames are coming away from
the
wall... I have done some minor investegation and the plaster has
cracked
and come away, as has some of the "light brown" bricks behind that and a
very small amount of the "grey" bricks behind them. They appear to have
just become dry and crumbly and broken up...

Can anybody tell me why this has happened and suggest any ways to
fix/stop
it happening again? I know you'll probably need to know more, so please
just ask.

Thanks in advance...


I suggest you render the whole wall with car body fillero over expanded
metal mesh or carbon fiber cloth

Then you can drive the whole house down to teh MOT station and get it
ratifed.


Excellent, now that i can do
--
Alex

"Michael McNeil" wrote in message
om...
"Bob Mannix" wrote in message
...

With hindsight, I should probably have knocked out all the upstairs
walls at
that stage and replaced them with stud walls, and I rather wish I had.
But
you never do, do you?

After wall papering it didn't look too bad. The extra stability has
prevented any further deterioration and it's lasted 15 years fine and
the
dodgy door way is now banged in and out of by a 13 year old son who
didn't
exist back then! It's OK, but, as I said, I should really have knocked
all
the walls out and redone them - it wouldn't actually have been that big
a
job (I now realise) then.

If you can get at the gaps in the door-frames/walls, you might try
foam filler. You'd have to make sure the doors were perfectly fitted
in the frames by wedging coins or something all around to make sure
the gaps stay equal. Don't overfill either or the foam will push the
frames into the doors.

I doubt that your doors were perfect fits in their frames. The gaps
should be something like the thickness of a 2p coin. But as long as
the door doesn't catch the frames it doesn't matter how much gap
really. They may have worked loose because they were too tight or
catching the frame some how.

If that is the case be sure to plane them to fit after the foam goes
off. If the foam idea works, that is.

That sounds like a nice easy solution... is there a good way to get a
flatish surface using the foam?
--
Alex