Interior Lintel in a timber stud / brick infill spine wall

[rikmayall]

Hey guys, I'm doing a simple design on a friends 1890 built house (London) for a structural beam to span between what I thought was an internal brick wall... the builder uncovered the plasterboard earlier and exposed a timber stud brick infill wall.

I'll need to get called over to the site at some stage tomorrow but I am a little worried now that the brick is doing no work at all, and is just acting as sound / insulation between the rooms and also some restraint for the timber vertical studs. It means I'll have to start adding/replacing timber beam sections to make sure they can take the load, as well as the posts to take the axial loads from the new lintel.
Has anyone had any experience with timber infill walls and any solutions or to suggest what best way to approach this?
Can I introduce a beam and start loading up the brick on either side? Does the timber stud usually run the full way down to foundation or doe the sole plate of the stud wall normally stop at ground floor level? Can I assume that the brick will take some axial load from the beams even if there is no contact between the beam and the top of the brick infill??

 

[bookowski]

I run across this in NY occasionally, not sure if it's the same but in my experience:
- brick is infill only, walls are framed as if there is no brick
- the brick and mortar are low strength/poor quality with poor workmanship, often no bonding or header courses
- the brick is probably taking load even though it wasn't intended to