advice on brickwork

[moose]

hi to all u bricky,s and builders out there..im think of putting a second story on my home and was woundering if i could go up using brick or do i have to use blue bourd...my house is about 50 years old and is double brick with no cracks in any of the walls.and if so can i do double or single

[boban]

You can most likely go brick. It needs to be looked at first.

[moose]

do u guys think double brick or single

[Dirty Doogie]

You will need to check the size of your existing wall footings before deciding. Generally though blueboard upper storey extensions can be added without modifying footings.

[Brickie]

I dont think the extra weight of brick will be an issue, I enquired about this for my own place some years ago and was told the original foundations would be quite adequate.

[pawnhead]

We had to do some underpinning of the footings on a place at Mosman before adding a second storey. Mind you that was an older semi, and they weren't always built as solid in the old days.
You'd have to have an engineer certify it, and it would depend on how tough he is I suppose. I've worked on quite a few upper floor additions (many of them brick veneer) without having to touch the existing footings.

[moose]

thanks for all your replys guys.you all have been real helpfull and ive decided to call an enginer tommorrow and see what he has got to say...