do I need a lintel?

[beany2112]

Hi All, Just signed up to get some advice if I may....

I need to remove a rotting door and window frame. the frame is six foot wide and is in a supporting wall between the 'old back of house' and the newer conservatory/extension (ie the exterior wall is now an interior wall). I was expecting the window frame to be supporting the soldier course however to my surprise there is a 1/2 inch gap between the soldier course + lead liner and the frame. The frame is only really fixed at the sides.

My question is, given that the soldier course is not resting/suported by the upper edge of the door/window frame can I safely remove it without putting a new lintel in? TIA
beany

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I was expecting the window frame to be supporting the soldier course however to my surprise there is a 1/2 inch gap between the soldier course + lead liner and the frame. The frame is only really fixed at the sides.

That it's fixed at the sides is actually quite normal, especially on modern houses/buildings with steel lintels. Also the case for vertical sliding sashes

My question is, given that the soldier course is not resting/suported by the upper edge of the door/window frame can I safely remove it without putting a new lintel in?

Window and door frames should never support any of the building above them - that is the task of the lintel. Have you examined the lintel, what material is it and what condition is it in generally? About the only original lintels which always need to be replaced are wooden ones which are generally comprehensively foobared after 100 or more years - and even then the Conservation Officer might have something to say about methods and materials used

 

[beany2112]

I'm taking it that the soldier course IS the lintel. However everything I've read says it should have a slight arch if acting as a lintel. - it doesnt arch . It is sound though normal brick layers above this soldier layer. Probably remortored in the 70's when the extension was added. Just to note. The same soldier course is evident all the other windows. The house is a 1930's built semi.

 

[stevethejoiner]

A soldier course of bricks can support brickwork above on their own but only if they are sprung soldiers, ie arched. Usually if the soldiers are in straight horizontal line and not arched they will themselves have to be supported, either by sitting on a steel strap resting on the walls each side (cant see it usually as it is set back from the face so not exposed to rusting, which it usually does) or with wire ties set into the lime mortar joints to the brickwork behind.

So your pretty safe in removing the timber frames.

Be warned, I think you could have planning issues however by removing and not replacing the inner door/window separating a conservatory from rest of the house as it then becomes part of the house and not attached to it.

Planing say,
"Not less than 75% of the roof area is made from translucent material.
Not less than 50% of the wall area is made from translucent material.
It is either unheated or heated by a system with its own and separate heating controls.
It must be separated from the main residence by ‘external’ doors.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Well in this neck of the woods I have to admit we don't see them too often (stone district for which massive stone lintels are the order of the day) and when we do see soldier lintels they are often slightly arched (making them self-supporting), but the inside skin of masonry you can sometimes have a timber lintel - these go rotten and need to be replaced.

I've also worked on slightly more modern industrial buildings from the 1940s amd 50s as well as early post war semis which had dead flat brickwork soldier lintels with a thin galvanised steel lintel (about 2 x 2in) underneath the masonry and set to the middle of the wall (and so hidden beneath the mastic when the Crittall steel windows are installed). Those can corrode so badly (bubble/delaminate) that the masonry needs taking down and redoing. Never seen one without some form of lintel or support. Are there signs of there having been such a lintel (rust staining on the underside of the brickwork, drilled holes in it)?

If you don't have any sign of a lintel I'd be concerned as to the stability of the wall. I certainly woudn't work on such a window opening without strongboys and Acrows to support the wall above

 

[beany2112]

thanks guys. I decided to add a steel lintel to the the outer-wall soldier course as i didnt see anything there even a few courses up but probably didnt need it. - better safe than sorry. The main wooden lintel was on the internal wall and in good condition so I left it alone. No probs with planning btw as it is really an extension of 30 years ago rather than a conservatory. I think there was a glass roof once but not now.
again thanks for your advice
/B