Greetings,
I have been lurking and learning for a while and have become brave enough to ask a couple of questions.
I am planning a family room / den addition onto the end of my house. The existing end is bricked all the way up to the gable end roofline, and is effectively two stories (the whole end is an exposed walk-in basement plus main living level above). The basement level will be cinder block walls, and the upper level will be regular wood framing and roof trusses. I would like to keep the brick as an exposed wall in the family room; there is only one small window to fill in, and I have a stash of left over original bricks to use. Also, the new front and back walls will be stepped in by one brick length from the existing walls, and the addition will be bricked too.
I have two questions: 1) what would be the best way of attaching the new walls to the existing brick wall, and 2) since there will be no break between the exterior portion of the existing wall and what will be the interior portion, how much of a problem do you think heat loss / gain will be across the interface? I would prefer not to do something like saw out a channel in the brick wall to extend the new framing into for attachment, but I guess I could as a last resort. I’m located in middle Tennessee, by the way, so we don’t generally have extended periods of real cold temperatures (the heat in the summer is another story, however!).
I appreciate any insights / advice from the braintrust here!
-Chuck
Replies
My brain trust would quickly go bankrupt.
I think it would be best to design the addition to be completely self-supported. No great trick with trusses anyways...
So then, all you need to consider is how to 'fill in the gap'.
I have seen this done with wood in contact with brick on an older structure The wood siding/brick joint was step-flashed into the mortar joints with lead. Lasted a long time, but was a disaster when it failed, and was not at all air tight.
I have also seen this transition done with heavy vertical metal U channel or angle anchored to the brick, with a gasket sandwiched in between. That seems like a good weather-tight design. Easier to flash the new structure up to. This is similar to the way some transitions between wood structures and exterior masonry chimneys are done.
I do not think the conductive heat loss (through the brick) is going to be substantial, particularly in your climate.
What are you doing on the roof? That could be tricky..
Edited 1/16/2004 3:12:09 PM ET by csnow
Thanks for the reply.
I would like to just extend the existing roofline directly onto the addition, so that is why I am looking at ways to attach the addition "firmly" to the end of the house.
I would prefer not to do the embedding of flashing into the mortar joints routine, just for the reasons you stated. Mounting a backing angle iron to the brick wall with anchors and a gasket may be the way to go, and I hadn't thought about that approach. But I don't know that it will be a rigid enough connection to extend the roofline without giving major problems with shingle flexing and eventual leaking.
I didn't think that heat conduction through the brick would be too big a deal, but I don't have any first-hand knowledge or experience with it.
Most things are never as simple as they seem at first glance, are they?