In a 1913 built small terraced house I have found that at the base of the interior walls there is a layer of wood at ground level. Below the wood is the top of the foundations and above the wood is the brick interior wall. I know little of such matters and just wondered if this was the norm for council houses built around this time. Also what would have been the reason for putting the wood in there? Thanks to anyone who knows their building history!
This was often the case when 'brick on edge' was used for internal walls. You'll probably find that there is a framework of timber in the wall and the bricks are built in small (about 1m square) sections. This was done for rigidity when using bricks on edge, and bricks on edge were used for speed and also because of a shortage and / or cost of bricks at the time
It's been mentioned here before on a few threads in the distant past but my google groups-dar is failing me and I can't find the refs. In those cases it was internal partition walling with a wooden break in the wall a bit above dpc but below floor level and was 3/4" or so thick (so thinner than yours). I can't remember the consensus but you may have more luck in finding the threads on a GG search.
I do remember mention of it being used to stabilise the build of fast rising lime mortared (slow setting) walls but I don't think that is the reason for having them on C1900 brick walls.
Certainly common around here in C1900 tenement builds.
interior walls there is a layer of wood at ground level. Below the wood is the top of the foundations and above the wood is the brick interior wall.
council houses built around this time. Also what would have been the reason for putting the wood in there?
It's a wall-plate to rest the floor joist ends on, so they're all level and you get a flat floor.
That's bog-standard construction for the time.
In my 1909 house, much of the floor had gone rotten due to lack of ventilation (by today's standards), and I had to replace it. Much to my relief, those wall plates were all untouched by wet rot or woodworm, and I didn't have to replace them. Don't know if the fact that they are caked in lime mortar on 3 sides gave them some protection, but I couldn't think of any other reason they had survived.
interior walls there is a layer of wood at ground level. =A0Below the wood= is the top of the foundations and above the wood is the brick interior wal= l.
council houses built around this time. =A0Also what would have been the rea= son for putting the wood in there?
In my 1973 house the upstairs partitions are concrete block built off wood laid acros the floorboards. I assumed it was something to nail the skirting to :-)
MBQ
he interior walls there is a layer of wood at ground level. Below the wood= is the top of the foundations and above the wood is the brick interior wal= l.
r council houses built around this time. Also what would have been the rea= son for putting the wood in there?
In this house there was a quarry tiled floor on top of some sort of screed = (no damp course) but we've now had that dug out and replaced with a concret= e slab (+ DPM & insulation). As far as I can tell the wood at the base of = the interior walls is resting on bricks at ground floor level. I have no i= dea how far the foundations go, but it could just be bricks sitting on the = sub-soil. Fortunately the rotted wood seems to be confined to one small le= ngth of the wood.
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