Soldier bricks above a window with no support

[Gringoking]

Hi all,

Hope you are all as well as can be given the circumstances!

I am hoping someone can give me a get out of jail card. I was redoing the pointing around my window as shown in the pic, however, the old morta had turned to sand, literally falling out as soon as I hit it with my plunging chisel, the bricks in turn followed. It turns out they were sitting on the UPVC D mould profile / window frame and have no support of their own.

I have just had the house (built in 1930's) rendered and don't want to mess up the wall, ideally I would like to be able to just replace the bricks, I am hoping you guys with more knowledge would be kind enough to give me a get out of jail card? It is a 2 skin solid wall without a cavity, the soldier bricks are all half bricks, with a wooden lintel behind them, the bricks above the soldier bricks sit on this lintel at right angles therefore supporting the above bricks.

I have attached photos to try aid my explanation.

Many thanks in advance,

Martin

 

[oldbutnotdead]

That timber lintel looks as if its got a bit of rot in it- have you tried stabbing it with a screwdriver to see how much life is left in it?

Not sure if it is just your camera but there seems to be a bit of a dip in the top of the window, you might want to think about chucking a concrete lintel in there & stick some brick slips on the front of it for camouflage- a row of halfbricks doesn't weigh much in the scheme of things but there will be a bit of load from the soldier course above (which the original timber window would have supported no problem)

 

[Johnny Allround]

Hi Gringoking, the cowboy who fit the window should have put in a length of flat iron across the window void to reinforce the soldier bricks and take the weight off the the frame. If you can insert a length of 100mm flat iron across the soldier brick line And above the window frame and supported by the internal brick rebates happy days. Job done.