Cracked lintel above front door

[frank999]

Hi,

A simple job to re-felt the porch has revealed a cracked lintel above the front door, and a cracked brick above, the damage looks historic with no recent further movement. Plaster work inside reveals no recent movement.

I've chipped away what I can see as lose, revealing a chunk missing beyond the bearing, fortunately the lintel is sitting on a 2x4, which itself sits on top of the original solid door frame.

To repair properly, I presume the front door, Lintel and all brick work up to the 1st floor bay needs to come out and be reset/replaced as necessary, unless it can be repaired in situ.

I guess as a temporary fix I could cement in the gap found in the lintel ? and deal with it later.

 

[^woody^]

Stop it getting wet and it wont get any worse and wont need replacing

 

[frank999]

Thanks, I'll continue the porch felt up over the area to stop any ingress, and fill the 'hole' with mortar, 1 cement to 5x ballast

 

[^woody^]

And prevent it coming down the wall and behind

 

[frank999]

Thanks, torch on mineral cap stuck to the brick work should seal it.

Wondering why the lintel split in the first place, span is 1500mm, presume movement over time, slamming door, re-bar looks well rusted, so the split must have happened quite a while ago.

 

[^woody^]

You have a lot of water concentrated in a small space due to the run-off from that bay/house junction, and no drip from the render and brick oversail. Thats why. And that's what you need to deal with.

 

[frank999]

Thanks, your right the bay had no proper drip, I have made a temporary drip using PVC strips sealed in silicon, but not sure how long the silicon will last in the elements here. Not quite sure how you create a render drip on a curve, was thinking of SS Render stop cut every 50mm, and pebble dashing that with spar to match.
Although the porch timber has suffered the elements, the lintel and supporting timber are all bone dry.
Looking at the crack in the brick it runs parallel to the inside of the flank wall (1 bricks width).