Rotten wooden lintel needs replacing with what? See pix!

[Pspause]

A first floor window on the gable side of my 1927 house needs a new lintel.

Looking up to the window

• Pspause
• 11 Apr 2009
• 1

A first floor window on the gable side of my 1927 house needs a new lintel. <br>

The old wooden one has rotted away and I'm not sure if replacing it is a job I can tackle easily.

The window itself

• Pspause
• 11 Apr 2009
• 2

(It seems to have been rotten for many years, judging how it fell to bits when I touched it.)

DETAILS
Cavity wall brick.
Window space is 510 mm wide.
Space above frame 90 mm.

Close up of the window

• Pspause
• 11 Apr 2009
• 1

QUESTIONS!
1. I assume I could buy a Catnic lintel of exactly the right dimensions and insert it into the space?
2. But how 'tight' does it have to be on the bricks?
3. Is it easy to insert a new Catnic lintel?
4. Any tips about it not being supported currently?

I'm extremely grateful for any advice anyone can offer. Thanks.

 

[chappers]

What you want is a 100 x 65pre-stressed concrete lintel,of the relevent length if you want to be really thorough do both the inner and outer leaves but to be honest you can get away with just the rotten one, it should be tight up to the brickwork above and not sitting on the window( pack it up with some steel plate or a bit of roofing slate, if necessary.

For such a small opening you should just be able to take it out without any support (no more than two or three bricks should fall out)