Any advice on lintels!!!

[lettselectrical]

I want to enlarge the opening on my chimney breast in my front room (downstairs) and make it into a alcove for my television and know i need to put a lintel in to support the bricks above.

Am i right in doing it this way....

1) remove plaster to expose bricks.
2) remove mortar between the joint two bricks up from where i want to in stall lintel and insert strongmans on two acrose either side of chimney breast.
3) tighten up acrose then remove bricks two levels down and insert concrete lintel.
4) cement in and leave for couple of days.
5) in mean time remove bricks underneath lintel.
6) remove strong man and replace gap left behind with slate and mortar

i hope to do it this weekend so and advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[^woody^]

You've got the principle, but for a typical width brest, you could most likely just take the bricks out and insert the lintel(s). The brickwork above will stay up

You will probably need two 75x100 concrete lintels side by side as the brest should be 215mm thick at the front

Otherwise you would have just one acrow and one strongboy central to the brest

Put mortar on top of the lintels and then push the lintel up. Wedge it up from the bearings. Use natural slate for packing

But also bear in mind that the brest may have the outer brickwork 215mm thick, and then the flue linings or different bricks forming the flue, so these may need supporting too

 

[lettselectrical]

how long looking at leaving acros in???????????? couple of days?

 

[^woody^]

Remove same day if packed with slate.
Next day (when mortar is hard) if not

 

[lettselectrical]