Wall plate onto brick - how?

[Tim S]

Hi,

I've decided to replace the dodgy bit of plasterboard sitting betwixt the joists and the wall top.

Wall is single brick.

Do I just slide a woodent plank in onto the top of the wall (after acro-propping the joists up a fraction and clearing out the PB) or do I need to bed it on with something (bearing in mind the plate thickness is about 12-15mm).

What would be a suitable material to use - is plain softwood OK?

Should I attempt to fix the joists to the plate (hard I realise as the plate is thin)?

This is a 3.6m section of wall.

Cheers

Tim

[TMC]

surely the joists are already on the wall top as the plasterboard would be fitted afterwards

the plasterboard would butt up to the wall before the wall was then plastered

Unless of course the wall was added later in which case it would not be load bearing and it would not matter if the joists touched it or not

Or am I missing something?

Tony

[Tim S]

TMC coughed up some electrons that declared:

Ideally, in a world devoid of nobheads, I would agree.

I think the only thing missing was the builder's braincell...

You may indeed say "surely", but if you look here:

here

'll notice what seems to be a distinct absence of a plate. The wall really is bang under the red writing in both photos.

The diagram at:

the bit in question, either side of area B

It's hard to tell if that section of the wall is "original" as the house has been modified several times since 1950. However, it's clear from the general structure that that section of wall is supposed to bear the joists.

The bit in the middle (definately original) is done right:

weird isn't it... If they'd used a narrow strip of PB as a "plate" I'd understand that, as an obvious bodge. Doing what they've done looks harder than doing it right in the first place.

Cheers

Tim

[TMC]

> show the bit in question, either side of area B

It does seem very odd

I cannot work out how they could put up the plaster board before the joints or why on earth they would want to do so

As to a solution I think that I would use some 12 mm ply and put individual pads under each joist

this would be the easiest thing to do and would be better than the original

I would not even bother fixing the pads in place the weight of the joists will hold them

Tony