Council house floor/ceiling beams

[grim_d]

Me dear old mum has bought herself an ex council house, 4 in a block style, she's ground floor, 1940s build.

Most of the rooms have a beam on display, presumably assisting to hold the upstairs floor up. I've seen these numerous times in houses of this era but always (wrongly) assumed they were steel.

I took the (unearthed and with non compliant wiring colours) light down to discover that it's timber, so I thought that for whatever reason boards had been nailed to the side, I had a tentative pry at one end of board but they go into the wall too.

I also gave it a few knocks and it's hollow?

Does anyone know exactly how these things are constructed before I end up with Mr upstairs coming downstairs with a bump?

It seems like its couple of timber "beams" with a space in the middle and boards on the outside, effectively giving you the strength of a solid beam but cheating a bit?

Don't want to remove it or anything but I will have to sort the light wiring out and access from above may be tricky.

 

[gaz1]

it could be a steel beam encased in wood

drill a hole through with a wood bit if its steel in middle it will be blunt in no time

easiest way to check and fill back up again

 

[brightspark]

if your rewiring it u will have to stich the wiring across the ceiling .the joists will probably have 16 inch spacings. so u need to knock a small round hole either side of joist . nitch a slot out in-between and thread the cable through and patch them up if no access from above

 

[grim_d]

it could be a steel beam encased in wood

drill a hole through with a wood bit if its steel in middle it will be blunt in no time

easiest way to check and fill back up again

Just wondered if anyone knew before I went drilling holes in stuff, never had my drill or any bits on me today, there must be tens of thousands of houses like this?

if your rewiring it u will have to stich the wiring across the ceiling .the joists will probably have 16 inch spacings. so u need to knock a small round hole either side of joist . nitch a slot out in-between and thread the cable through and patch them up if no access from above

I'm hoping it's just a dodgy diy effort with a chocolate block stuffed up into the void, house is old wiring colours, feeding the light however is a yellow live, black neutral and a 2nd black which may be earth because it's not neutral....but it was tied to the neutral.

Good tip for running new wiring if need be though! Thanks.