RSJ Purlin - Advice please.

Hello,

Just some advice really. Afew years back myself and my father knocked a wall down in the small room of my house to make it bigger. The wall supported a purlin above via a few bricks and a wooden post (1930s style). We acro'd the few bricks and post above and then inserted a suitable galvanised RSJ from the builders merchants. (im afraid I didnt have any calculations but I recall the lintel did look overkill for the

6" span it was covering). This was about 4 years ago with no problems. Wanting to move to a bigger house we have recently had an offer on our property for sale. The question is this, will this affect the sale of the house or will an indemnity insurance be required? This was a fault on my part as I presumed a load bearing wall was considered a wall above what you are about to remove (or am I wrong on this?) As the purlin was sitting on the wall above I presumed the old 3"x3" post supporting this was there to eliminate sag in the beam. Will I need to restore the wall back?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you kindly.

Reply to
Omega2006
Loading thread data ...

ooops

Sorry the span was 6 fott not 6"

Omega2006 wrote:

Reply to
Omega2006

If the buyers surveyor does question the girder / lintel / RSJ, they may look back through building control records to see if it was passed. If it doesn't get noticed by the surveyor, then you don't need to say or do anything, if he does pull it up then you may need to do the work again, or knock the cost of it off the selling price. Between you and I, I have seen supporting walls built on 3X2 timbers and remained in place for over a century without trouble. Don't throw money away on indemnity insurance, it's not worth the paper it's written on and wouldn't be accepted anyhow.

Reply to
Phil L

Not sure you are correct there Phil. A young couple I know have just completed on a house with indemnity insurance on it because of a loft conversion.

ken

Reply to
Ken

Their solicitor mustn't be worth his salt!

Reply to
Phil L

I wonder how much commission the soliciters get for selling those policies?

Reply to
<me9

Thanks to everyone who've replied.

Reply to
Omega2006

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.