Opening living room and dinning room

[Dahac]

I have a had a few builders price up, opening up my living room dining room and they have all said I need a 3.1m universal beam. However one build has said you can use a concrete lintel instead.

I have done some research and found out that these can be used on dead loads, with load bearing wall.

But I would like to know if this is ok to use on a live load, load bearing wall.

Thanks

 

[tony1851]

I would not recommend using a concrete lintel on a 3.1m span, and which is presumably carrying a wall and floor above.
Pre-cast concrete lintels are not wholly reliable as they are subject to cracking whilst being handled. Also, they are primarily intended for new work where they can be built-in as brickwork proceeds. In that case, the brick courses immediatley above provide some stiffness to the beam by virtue of the adhesion of the mortar, This will not occur when the beam is put into a newly-formed opening.
It's safer to go with the Universal Beam; a 203 x 102 on 6" concrete padstones will be fine.

 

[noseall]

Good answer from Tony.

Have any of these builders mentioned the words "building control" or "structural engineer"?