Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Jun 09, 2008 5:42 pm Hello. I am gutting my apartment at the moment. I have a wall in the middle of the room. I had a structural engineer to look at it and he gave me a certificate that says its not a retaining wall. But really, he had very limited material to work with (a set of incomplete architectural drawings for the building and his visual inspection) so I don't fully trust him. Thinking about maybe just leaving the wall alone.
The demolishers came and took out a wardrobe that was built against this wall. And the material of the wall is now exposed. It looks like some sort of "cement bricks"?? It looks fairly brittle with all those holes in them. I am really not too sure what the material is though. I have taken a photo of it. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ In the photo, the left third of the wall appears to be some sort of rather solid material (concrete?) but on the reverse side, the material is actually the same as what is shown on the right this side of wall in this photo. There are 2 types of "bricks" in it. Some (B) with huge "holes" in them (like acid has eaten it away) and they are easy to scratch with just a coin. The other material (A) is smooth and difficult to scratch. The question is, what materials are these "bricks" exactly? Does this indicate that this is likely/unlikely to be a load bearing wall or can we not really make any predication based on the material here at all? Thanks. Re: Can this material possibly be used on a retaining wall? 2Jun 09, 2008 7:43 pm A larger pic would be nice.
Looks like besser blocks or a charcoal style of block. Sometimes besserblock is filled with concrete - particulalry in the tropics for cyclone reasons. Why not ring the engineer and send him a photo for him to confirm for you. Its his name on it after all. Steve DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair We purchased a 1960s property that is on timber stumps mostly, and a newer section is on concrete stumps. We had a building inspection initially and they reported some… 0 12749 Thank you again Simeon.. I will call my certifier for that. Have a good day 4 5197 Different to what others have said but thanks for that insight. 2 5206 |