removing large concrete lintel

[karenandoz]

Hi all - in an old 1950's council house. Finally opening up external cavity wall to new kitchen extension. Existing old 700mm doorway being widened to 1.4m so I can have fancy french doors!
Only prob is whopping great poured in situ concrete lintel over old door on internal wall. What do you reckon least messy way of getting round this so can put in new longer steels - Pneumatic drill would do the job off a scaffold but would make a hell of a mess! Any ideas? many thanks.

 

[karenandoz]

p.s meant to say that it is me and my hubby doing all, so we haven't got a big team of burly blokes to lift it out

 

[seasickstevie]

... external cavity wall to new ... / ... on internal wall.

Which is it?

 

[karenandoz]

concrete lintel is on internal wall

 

[karenandoz]

right - i get it - just read and reread my post - now i see the confusion!
We are breaking through the entire cavity wall to make a nice big hole for a new door in to the new extension. Existing lintel is sitting on inside wall of this cavity...hope this clarifys! thanks

 

[Static]

Chances are you will need a couple of steel beams as you are moving away from a simple door to a full structural opening.. may pay to get a structural engineer to design you some steels and give you guidance on building regs and removal of existing..

 

[joe-90]

Check out the Genie Lift range. Just call a hire shop and tell them what you are doing.

 

[^woody^]

Put the support props in and then remove the mortar and part of the brickwork around the lintel so that it is free to move and just resting on the bearings

Then carefully knock out the bearing on one side, once course at a time so that the lintel drops down, and then do the other side, and then work like this until it is down near the floor

 

[karenandoz]

Thanks woody - so do you reckon we would 'lever' out the courses of bricks one course at a time - . sorry to ask you - just working out how each end would drop down on the course of bricks as we remove them - as the weight of this thing is a bit scary

We used a genie lift to get oak trusses up in the kitchen - so i know how great they are - but the cost of hire is a downside - and access was a problem last time - because of the weight of the lifter itself (getting over doorway steps etc.) caused a headache. Thanks though for all your ideas.

 

[karenandoz]

Also - could be a problem as we only really want to extend the opening on one side and opening up on both sides would involve opening the wall to the outside elements - have you any other ideas Woody - if we can only take brickwork out on one side? Thanks again.

 

[IJWS15]

If the doorway is 700mm the linten can't be that heavy.

Many years ago my brother and I (Both in mid teens) helped my father take out a 7 ft long (6 ft opening) shoe lintel, about 2 1/2 Cwt

If this is only around 1m long it should not be too heavy to lift out.

What is the floor? Concrete or floorboards?

 

[^woody^]

The options are to push it out - if a concrete floor and onto some rubble or suchlike for cushioning,

to lower it onto a shoulder - if your hubby is inclined,

or to break it out with a hammer and chisel or SDS drill - or at least break enough of it to lighten it and then do one of the above

 

[karenandoz]

Thanks for all your help - It's about 12" high - so would hate to put my other half in a comprimising position ( ! ) only to discover he couldn't support it - as it's much deeper than a standard modern concrete lintel.
Looks like part breaking up in situ and sticking up a temporary stud to stop rubble flying across the lounge while the kids are watching tele is the way to go! thanks again

 

[karenandoz]

Hi - me again! Just in case there are any other weedy bods out there with the same problem - we built two scaffold towers either side of the lintel -levered it out between the acro's so only dropped about 6 innches on to gently sloping planks between the two towers so could slide it towards one of the towers - then built 3rd lower tower at 90 degrees to it with planks sloping downwards and gradually turned and slid it down, then fourth single level tower - with planks that slid it on to floor ... and then discovered we couldn't budge it (!) so got the pnematic drill on it to break concrete and rebar apart so could carry it out of the lounge in lumps

Oh and it weighed a tonne! Even by my muscle bound hubby's standards!
So the two helpful bods who shouldered theirs out must have muscles like Popeye!

 

[Nige F]

Ah , they don`t build council houses like that any more - come to that they don`t build them at all