Cast lintel only over internal cavity wall on doorway

[bigdrew]

Hi all,

Usual situation from reading other threads... wooden door frame coming out and UPVC one going in.

Would you leave it as it (doesn't seem to have effected the many other houses on the street which look to be the same construction) or do I add an external skin lintel. If so what type as there is no cavity and I'd like to avoid knocking the header bricks out.

External wall is now plaster boarded as it has been turned into a lean to thing but it is still essentially an external door

 

[bigdrew]

It looks as though the internal one has been cast up to the header bricks if that makes sense / makes any difference..

 

[stuart45]

Was quite common to put wall ties in the soldier course bricks and cast the concrete lintel insitu so the lot became one piece.
Anyone who has had to knock one out knows how solid the job is.

 

[bigdrew]

Annoyingly there is no way to tell if they bothered with wall ties now! (And going from how well the rest of the house is put together doesn't inspire confidence).

No one else's has appeared to have fallen down however..
Although mine was one of the first built.

I'll give it a once over with a metal detector so see if there are likely wall ties and if so probably leave it as..

 

[stuart45]

When they were cast insitu the concrete sticks to the back of the bricks like cement mortar does so that also seems to bond the lot together.
It is true however that houses are not always put together like is shown in the Haynes manual. There is a 2 year old estate near me where some people have found out the insulation between the rafters was not installed prior to tacking.