Hi all,
I have noticed cracks developing in the brick work outside and inside along the exposed side of my semi. With the better weather I have gone exploring and have uncovered three old iron lintels in varying degrees of rusted state. Two opposite one another,either side of the cavity above what used to be a doorway and is now bricked up. The other in the outside leaf of my extension just a few feet further back from the first two, again above a door which is now bricked up.
All are different types of lintel and separate from each other (they do not cross the cavity). The one in the extension is a box lintel the outer of the other two is a U shaped lintel and the inner an I shape. The question is what to do about these lintels and how to do it? The two on the exterior are in a worse state and have caused half inch cracks while the inner of the two in the main house is only slightly rusted (at least what I can see of it) and had only caused a hairline crack along its length with a step down about a bricks length off the end.
As I say these are old doorways now bricked up and apart from the wall above, the walls are non-supporting.
The one in the extension shouldn't be too much of a worry to remove as there are only four or five brick layers above it. But those in the main house have about four metres of wall above them. Is it possible to dig these out and swing them out, packing the wall as I go, or is that likely to be dicing with death and should I use supports even though the doors are bricked up?
Secondly, if I may. If I was to open the old doorway as a new window about 600mm wide would it be sufficient to replace these two iron lintels with standard concrete ones? And on the same note, in the same room I have another bricked up window with 750mm concrete lintels. If I opened this up again what is the maximum width of window I could use? I have read somewhere that that for shorter lintels 100mm either side is sufficient support, which would allow me a 500-550mm wide window.
My apologies for rambling on. That is a lot of questions. My thanks to anyone who can help with any of them.
I have noticed cracks developing in the brick work outside and inside along the exposed side of my semi. With the better weather I have gone exploring and have uncovered three old iron lintels in varying degrees of rusted state. Two opposite one another,either side of the cavity above what used to be a doorway and is now bricked up. The other in the outside leaf of my extension just a few feet further back from the first two, again above a door which is now bricked up.
All are different types of lintel and separate from each other (they do not cross the cavity). The one in the extension is a box lintel the outer of the other two is a U shaped lintel and the inner an I shape. The question is what to do about these lintels and how to do it? The two on the exterior are in a worse state and have caused half inch cracks while the inner of the two in the main house is only slightly rusted (at least what I can see of it) and had only caused a hairline crack along its length with a step down about a bricks length off the end.
As I say these are old doorways now bricked up and apart from the wall above, the walls are non-supporting.
The one in the extension shouldn't be too much of a worry to remove as there are only four or five brick layers above it. But those in the main house have about four metres of wall above them. Is it possible to dig these out and swing them out, packing the wall as I go, or is that likely to be dicing with death and should I use supports even though the doors are bricked up?
Secondly, if I may. If I was to open the old doorway as a new window about 600mm wide would it be sufficient to replace these two iron lintels with standard concrete ones? And on the same note, in the same room I have another bricked up window with 750mm concrete lintels. If I opened this up again what is the maximum width of window I could use? I have read somewhere that that for shorter lintels 100mm either side is sufficient support, which would allow me a 500-550mm wide window.
My apologies for rambling on. That is a lot of questions. My thanks to anyone who can help with any of them.
