Short walls under ground floor

[pmlavers]

Under my ground floor I have a very deep void (2 - 3m). The space is however divided by 2 walls running parallel to the front of the house under each of the rooms. The walls obviously support the floor joists at 1/3 and 2/3 of their length, but could they have any other structural purpose. The house is end of terrace. I'm thinking about using the space under the floor and it would be much more usefull if the walls could be replaced with rsjs etc. Any ideas?

[Ian Stirling]

The walls are there mainly to spread the load of the joists - if they are of a more typical size of 0.5m or so. However, in your case I would be concerned about a secondary function being to support the void, to stop it collapsing. Can you confirm tha the void is entirely above ground? Would leaving 2m 'stubs' of the mainly removed walls (to provide bracing for the wall if needed) be a problem?

(I am not a structural engineer, if you house falls down as a result of actions taken in this post, I reserve the right to point and laugh)

[Tony Bryer]

Sleeper walls. They don't generally have any other purpose if there are no partitions over.

[pmlavers]

The void is largely below ground level. Completely subteranean at the front to about 1 meter above ground at the rear. The house was built with a basement below the rear kitchen addition but just a deep void below the living room and dining room. I'm thinking about extending the basement under the dining room, but would need to remove the dwarf walls in order to open up the space.

[Rob Morley]

They might be buttressing the front wall, in which case you can probably only partly remove them.

[Rick]

Jobs for a strutrial engineer.

Rick

[Chris Bacon]

You've the same problem as I, & it conmes in a bottel.