Hi I've been busy renovating my small 2 bed single storey cottage for a few months now and made an "interesting" discovery today. I pulled off a window frame to discover a 2 inch thick lintel looking very bent. It spans 2 windows both measuring just over 1meter wide and there is a brick column between the the windows supporting the center of the lintel. The lintel is supporting the inner skin of the cavity wall. The roof's Queen post is sat on this inner skin of bricks which is about 4 courses deep before the lintel. The Queen Post is positioned rite in the middle of the right hand window, which has unsurprisingly severely bent the lintel. This could not be seen behind the large old wooden window frame. I presume the old original wooden framed sash windows may have provided some support to this lintel, but the UPVC windows that are fitted to the external skin now obviously don't.
I wondered if it would be the same story on the opposite side of the house, so I chipped off the plaster above the single large window on this side as well to discover a 3 inch wood lintel that must have been re-enforced at a later date with a 4 inch lintel underneath it. This had also sagged a bit but no where near as much the single 2 inch one at the opposite side of the house.
So I reckon while the house is in this state I'm best of replacing both of em. The main thing I suppose I need to know is what type of lintel I should be looking at as there are so many these days?
Basically I think I need some thing to support the weight of my roof and a bit of storage in the boarded loft. The spans measure: 1760mm for the single large window and 2280mm for the 2 window on the opposite side. (there is a supporting brick column in the middle of these 2 windows)
Cheers in advance
I wondered if it would be the same story on the opposite side of the house, so I chipped off the plaster above the single large window on this side as well to discover a 3 inch wood lintel that must have been re-enforced at a later date with a 4 inch lintel underneath it. This had also sagged a bit but no where near as much the single 2 inch one at the opposite side of the house.
So I reckon while the house is in this state I'm best of replacing both of em. The main thing I suppose I need to know is what type of lintel I should be looking at as there are so many these days?
Basically I think I need some thing to support the weight of my roof and a bit of storage in the boarded loft. The spans measure: 1760mm for the single large window and 2280mm for the 2 window on the opposite side. (there is a supporting brick column in the middle of these 2 windows)
Cheers in advance