Cutting Access Ports through Sandstone Walls
Part 1
Good Morning Everyone
At present, I do not have access under the wooden floors of my house. My preference is to put a single trapdoor through a floor and then open up access ports into the crawlspace under the other rooms. I need some advice on whether it is feasible to cut some access ports through my sandstone foundations and, if so, the best and safest method.
Background
My house is 130 years old, is heritage listed and is in a heritage classified area. The foundations, up to 2.5 metres high, consist of sandstone ashlars laid directly onto solid dolerite bedrock. The sandstone blocks are 450 mm thick, 300 mm high and are mostly 600 mm long, but their length does vary between 300 and 900 mm. The house walls are made from sandstock bricks, locally known as convict bricks, and the external walls are cavity brick while the internal walls are double brick with no cavity.
The floor structure consists of very hard hardwood (spotted gum?) 100 x 100 mm plates laid directly on the top row of sandstone. Then there are 185 x 58 mm joists of the same timber laid on 450 mm centres and spanning up to 4.5 metres. The floor itself is 100 x 25 mm T&G messmate. All is in good condition, no moisture, bugs or subsidence in 130 years.
http://www.renovateforum.com/image/j...ooAKKKKAP/2Q==
The only part of the foundations that are not load-bearing are directly under doorways. Above is my SketchUp drawing of the existing setup, drawn within the limits of that programs templates. Note that the real sandstone blocks are much larger than those in SketchUp.
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