Expert: Arshad Khan - 3/14/2004

Question
Hi
Thanx for your early response.
The problem i want to solve out is that i want to construct a 4 1/2 inch brick wall on an existing floor of terrazo. The height of wall is about 3 feet above floor and over it an aluminium frame with glass in it is to be fitted just to partion a drawing and dining room. It will not gonna take any load as there was no wall in between these two alraedy it is just for the purpose of partioning but i was bit consious about the fact that if anyone pushes the wall laterally will it gonna move laterally as i know that its very difficult to get a bond between a brick and teraazo floor so kindly give your suggestion about it.
Thanx
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Followup To
Question -
Hi
I just want to inquire that is it necessary to have the foundation of 4 1/2 inch brick wall also can it be built directly on a terrazo floor without side bearing or foundation i mean directly on the finish floor.
Also is lintel is provided for a 4 1/2 inch brick wall.
thanx
Answer -
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Hi Adeel,

Hi,

This is a very difficult question to answer without knowing the design and construction details of the floor, the height of the brick wall and the strength of the soil/material below the floor. If it is a new construction, then I would recommend a local thickening of the floor slab under the wall. This thickening can be say double the thickness of the floor elsewhere and be about 15 to 18 inches wide, with a layer of mesh reinforcement top and bottom. (mesh being say 1/4 inch bars at 6 inches spacing both ways).

Generally if there is significant load above an opening, then a lintel is recommended.

I hope this helps!


Kind regards,

Arshad

Answer
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Hi Adeel,

I still do not know the quality of the existing floor or soil below, but assuming that these are good, then I would reckon that the 3 feet high wall with alum window frame above will be OK to construct directly on top of the floor. In order to get a good bond, you should either scabble (roughen-up) the surface below the wall or else drill in some holes to coincide with brick vertical joints, say every 2 feet centres, and then grout in some 1/4 inch vertical dowels. Better still would be to grout-in up-side down U-links, which can be grouted into pairs of holes 3 inches apart drilled below the vertical brickwork joints. If the bricks are hollow, then you could cast in these u-bars into any of the voids of the brickwork.

Also to give the wall lateral stability, I suggest you drill in some wall ties to any other wall at right-angles that the new wall may be butting into.

I hope this helps!

Kind regards,

Arshad