Interior Door Lintel

[pja123]

Hey Guys,

I've noticed the wooden lintel above my door frame is cracked horizontally right through the centre section (cause for concern?? see picture below).

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• pja123
• 14 Mar 2010
• 1

Ideally, i want to take this out and put a new lintel in, my question is what type and size of lintel would be the best for the job? An upstairs joist runs directly over this passage so i would guess it's partially load bearing at the very least.

Thanks in advance.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

If you your replacing it, I would go for a 150mm (6 inch) x 100mm (4 inch) section rough cast concrete lintel. It should be about 400mm bigger than your door opening, so it bears over 150mm either side of brick work. It needs to be rough cast, so the render/plaster will key to it better than it would on a smooth/fine faced lintel.

 

[pja123]

Thanks mate, appreciate the advice. I used one of those £8-ish 900mm steel rod reinforced concrete lintels for my fireplace thought that might be a little thick and heavy for over the door, i'll look in to it though.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

it depends on the thickness of the wall brick/blocks, you could always consider, replacing the wood lintel with one a little chunkier. As it's likely that it is only supporting the brick/block work above, as the wall will be carrying most of the load.
If there is a local pre-cast company near you, they will be able to knock you up a bespoke R/C lintel for very little extra cost.

 

[noseall]

A standard 70mm x 100mm pcc builders lintel will be fine and ready to accept most internal plaster finishes.

 

[pja123]

Thanks mate, i'll pop down jewsons and see what they've got.