That sounds like too much to me. Can you see any cut through metal bars in the concrete part or a change of shade part way down it. The hole may have just cut part into the lintel and only really removed some of the "skin". That would probably be ok.
Is it ok to put an extractor fan through a lintel?
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It depends. How qualified is your spaniel - and can he concentrate on anything for more than 30 seconds?
One of our neighbours had their bathroom moved more than 20 years ago, and the fitter core drilled the stone lintels (inner and outer). My missus said at the time that it took him all afternoon and he took about 70% of the lintels out, right above the back door. The lintels actually lasted about 20 years and two changes of ownership plus a rental before the outer one finally cracked and they couldn't get the back door open. Then a couple of months later the crack started spreading up the wall (a couple of people warned them what would happen). They were lucky to find a builder willing to turn out on a bank holiday weekend to prop it.
I've actually found that plumbers are the worst offenders when it comes to fubarring joists, electricians can run them a close second at times though, so it doesn't surprise me that one or other of them would graduate to lintels. Wonder if it's the same guy?
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There are 6.5 cm from the hole to the bottom of the window so if a lintel is aprox 10 cm thick, then the bottom half of the fan has been drilled through the lintel (considering the layer of plaster etc). I am certain that’s what he’s done as it’s taken his hours to drill and I could clearly see concrete, I’m just wondering if this is going to cause issues from a structural point of view.
Thanks everyone for your replies.
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I core drilled through a reinforced lintel once - about a half the diameter, 63mm core iirc. The concrete slowed it down, but the rebar really slowed it down. Wore the teeth rather a lot. It was in a funny place low in a wall and rendered over so I had no idea it was there - or why..
Your so called electrician is a twot.
There's all manner of these available, or he could have gone rectangular from the cooker hood or whatever it is you have. Then he could have gone above the lintel through part of a brick:
www.lbfans.co.uk
How tiresome for you. He will never replace the lintel, he'll say it'll be fine. SO you have two choices - sue him, or guess that it may be fine.
What's the appliance? It 's possibly too close to an opening window, unless he plans taking the vent up the outside wall. Check the instructions & regs.
Your so called electrician is a twot.
There's all manner of these available, or he could have gone rectangular from the cooker hood or whatever it is you have. Then he could have gone above the lintel through part of a brick:
110x54mm To 100mm - Domus System 100 - Round To Rectangular Adapter - Part No. DD070 | L&B Fans & Ducting Store
110x54mm To 100mm - Domus System 100 - Round To Rectangular Adapter - Part No. DD070 - In- Line Adapter is part of the rigid duct range. Our Rectangular to Round shape is suitable for size 110x54mm to 100mm ducting.
www.lbfans.co.uk
How tiresome for you. He will never replace the lintel, he'll say it'll be fine. SO you have two choices - sue him, or guess that it may be fine.
What's the appliance? It 's possibly too close to an opening window, unless he plans taking the vent up the outside wall. Check the instructions & regs.
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Can you post a pic from the outside?
Council building control are responsible for dangerous structures and may be willing to come out and advise.
If you remain concerned get a structural engineer in and ask for a copy of the electricians public liabilty insurance.
Blup
Council building control are responsible for dangerous structures and may be willing to come out and advise.
If you remain concerned get a structural engineer in and ask for a copy of the electricians public liabilty insurance.
Blup
All things being equal the bending strength of a lintel is related to its depth squared so since the depth of the lintel has been halved its strength is now a quarter of what it was. However the lintel will have been designed for its maximum bending moment which occurs at the centre and tends to zero at the outer ends, however whilst the force trying to shear through the lintel is zero at the centre it increases to a maximum at the outer ends, where your hole is located. Basically since no one knows what load is acting on the lintel and how over design, if any, it had in it originally they cannot tell you whether its ok or not. But what can be said is any available resisting shear force at the hole location has been lessened to a large extent so the original strength has been somewhat compromised. Problems may appear tomorrow, twenty years time or never but your electrician cannot know if it will be ok or not.
Thank you Blup. I haven’t paid the electrician yet and everywhere I read the answer is the same, ie that one should absolutely not drill through a lintel. I intend to get a structural engineer to advise me and pay him from the money I own the electrician who will only get the rest. I feel bad as he’s been drilling like a maniac all afternoon but I am not stressed thinking the wall is going to crack
i should imagine your roof rafters are located on the section of wall above the lintel which also means that if we ever get another good snow fall then the loading on the lintel could increase significantly, as stated earlier tomorrow, twenty years or never
depending on report from Engineer - it may cost to put right - so i would also wait for the engineers report and decide what to do next .... I assume you did not ask hime to stop work on lintel ?
Try not to get to stressed its not suddenly going to come crashing down around you, possibly a few cracks could appear but interacting forces will come into play in the overall stucture and keep things in equilibrium till things get sorted.
Scrabbling and filling the hole back with concrete should sort
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