What's the best way to tell if there's a lintel over this window?

[RobKett]

Hi there - I want a window replaced and for my own peace of mind I want to know if there's a lintel over the window at the moment. I am pretty sure there is because the soldier course is dead level - unlike 4 out of 6 neighbours houses - a couple of other houses have got some pretty wonky brickwork above their equivalent of this window! Also the course above the soldier course has clearly been replaced which suggests that something has been done there (this doesn't show very clearly in the photo but the mortars all different on that course). So I guess a lintel was put in when the double glazing was put in. But possibly what's holding this all up is the hardwood frame running round the window, bordering the bricks and since that probably has to go to get the window out, I'm fretting.

Before I let someone lose on the window I'd really like to know - what's the traditional best way to do this? If there is a lintel it must be quite thin and I guess metal. How can I tell if there's one there? I'm thinking of just drilling in at an angle and seeing if I hit metal!

Any advice gratefully received.

 

[kazuya]

cant really tell much from the picture but id say no it hasn't got a lintel
I would expect to be able to see it under the soldiers

 

[stuart45]

Bottom of soldiers don't line up with the beds.

 

[^woody^]

There is a concrete lintel on the inside and those soldiers are built off the frame.

 

[RobKett]

There is a concrete lintel on the inside and those soldiers are built off the frame.

Not doubting you because I know very little but how can you be so sure?

Do you mean something like this? It is a cavity wall. The windows are about 25 years old, don't know what they were doing then.

 

[RobKett]

Bottom of soldiers don't line up with the beds.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the beds, but if you mean the first bricks at the edge of the window, yes that has bothered me slightly - it's like there's no brick on which a lintel would be sitting because they are not in line with the top of the window.

 

[^woody^]

You've got an old house. They did not use modern lintels as in your image above. The outer wall tended to be built off the frames.

There is no apparent external lintel as the bottom of the soldiers does not line up with a joint on the adjacent brickwork.

There might be some sort of extravagant boot lintel and cut soldiers, but unlikely on a run of the mill house.

 

[RobKett]

You've got an old house. They did not use modern lintels as in your image above. The outer wall tended to be built off the frames.

There is no apparent external lintel as the bottom of the soldiers does not line up with a joint on the adjacent brickwork.

I was really thinking that if there was a lintel it was added when the windows were put in and the brickwork above was relaid, or at least repointed.

When you say the outer wall was "built off the frame" do you mean it was just built on top of the window frame?

 

[kazuya]

older wooden windows were much stronger than modern plastic ones, so they would lay the bricks directly onto the frame, when the old wooden frame is replaced the bricks tend drop a fraction over time, or when fitting, causing cracking above, people then have the brickwork repointed which is probably why yours looks like its been done

 

[111Armstrong]

Wooden windows are good than modern plastic windows, so they would lay the bricks directly onto the frame, when the old wooden frame is replaced the bricks tend drop a fraction over time, or when fitting, causing cracking above, people then have the brickwork repointed which is probably why yours looks like its been done

Read more:http://armstrongbricklaying.com.au/