Window Lintel / reveal repair

[henkeeper]

Not sure what to do with this - any suggestions welcome.

Having taken the plaster off the external cavity wall in this room to enable a complete replaster due to old blown plaster I discovered that above the window there is no internal lintel. There is a large timber one on the external brick skin but nothing on the internal one. The, presumably original, solution had been to nail a bit of plaster mesh up and skim over up to the window reveal. This however had left a whopping great void behind it which I now realise was the reason I had issues with trying to get the curtain rail to stay up! Has anyone got any suggestions as to how I get this flush with the internal brick skin so that I can plaster it up, make the window reveal AND ensure that I have something solid & sound to fix my curtain rail to once the wall is plastered & decorated etc.

I have a attached photos. (Well I thought I had) Try this instead:
//www.diynot.com/network/henkeeper/albums/

 

[limerockconstruction]

Pack it out with timer screwed to the original (maybe putting in a DPC inbetween), or be a PCC Lint. in there - pretty straight forward

 

[henkeeper]

Thanks, my initial thoughts were just to pack out with timber, not considered dpc though, but wasn't sure whether I could get away with that or if it was more technical.....

Obviously over thinking it

Presumably I'd just face the timber packers with a piece of pb and skim over?

 

[pinenot]

As you have not indicated, presumably there are no load problems with this arrangement?
The window head should be boxed out with two x two's or similar. One top and bottom runner with spacers set at 400mm centers (as per dwg.) should suffice, if the same pocket/shelf is at both ends, as in the pic. set the frame back into the wall in such a way that a slip of plaster board will bring this out to a suitable level with the brick. a cut of mesh will have to be fixed to this with a min 50mm lap onto the brick, the reason for this is that the brick wall and the boxed out, plaster board will expand and contract differently. Finally plaster ... viola

I've added a dwg. to your picture to show this arrangement

 

[henkeeper]

Thanks Pinenot. No drawing, but I think I get what you mean. That's kind of where I was going only I planned on putting two 2x2's in one above the other across the full width of the opening, pb on top then basecoat/skim on top of that, rather than box out. I'm trying to avoid having voids in this area so that when I come to fix the curtain rail / track I don't disappear into a hole and have the curtain come down as happened prior to this discovery (The missus wasn't happy cos these things always happen at the wrong times )

 

[henkeeper]

ps no no load issues as far as I can tell. The brickwork is supported by the timber lintel, and then the timber 'baseplate' (?) for the roof is on top of that. House built in the 40's and I think they guessed how big things were in those days - I had a internal door opening downstairs that I replaced the casing on & the opening was almost 8' high and 3'6" wide!!

 

[pinenot]

Oops! sorry about pic. I opened your pics for adding to, saved it but either I'm missing something or can someone please advise.

The same applies for your cill placement,after which you can line up two studs to your vertical window edges (or inward by 12mm, this depends on how much of the window frame you want revealed but make sure both sides and the top are the same. How much of the bottom cill rail is revealed is up to you, within reason)
I tend to fit the side reveal dwangs independently rather than than frames, this allows for different thicknesses as the brickwork allows. Something like this -

 

[dann09]

1. Can you post pics of the exterior? At the frame head and cill.

2. From the pics it seems that you have open cavity reveals. Is the cavity bridged at any place below the lintel pad (s)?

3. Are the bearing ends of the lintel in sound condition? Any signs of water penetration?

4. Any missing beds or perps should be pointed up, to firm up the brickwork below the lintel.

5. I wonder if you originally had a double-hung box frame in that opening?

 

[henkeeper]

Great! Thanks pinenot I understand now, but what I want to do rather than make a box (which is hollow) I would like to put something solid across the internal lintel area (ie timber batons or the like attached to original timber lintel) so that it gives something sound to attach curtain rail / track screws into once wall plastered up. The current situation meant that when I drilled the hole for the curtain track i 'disappeared' and the screw had nothing to bite in to.... Frustrating.

Dann - this is a first floor room, so will try and get a pic of external view from front garden as soon as possible (ie in daylight ) Yes open cavity reveals - they haven't been closed. No bridging at any point and no signs of any water ingress nor rot. No missing beds but pointing could probably do with seeing to. As you can see the window is narrower than the internal reveal and so n order to reduce the width of the opening such that it is right my plan was to use some 50mm celotex faced with pb fixed to the walls & covering the cavity on each side. This would give me just the right depth to bring the window frame 'inside' the reveal. And I could skim over the plasterboard once at that stage with the brickwork inside the room.

I hope this makes sense, cos I think I'm not explaining it very well.

Not sure what a "double-hung box frame" is tbh so can't comment

 

[dann09]

Thanks for your reply,

I dont understand what you are proposing.

The pointing i'm mentioning is in the interior reveals below the crooked padstone etc.

Your window frame - PVC or otherwise - should be set back in the opening, say 75mm is v. good. If i understand you, you are proposing to move the W/F?

Box frames are the traditional wood windows that slide up and down. The original PVC W/F fitters are possibly the cause of some of your difficulties.

 

[henkeeper]

Ah i get you - like a sash window, or those ones that have shutters that fold back into the reveal....

No not moving w/f. PVC frame is fitted on external skin of brickwork on a concrete padstone, all of which is fine and dandy. Problem is that the width of window opening on internal brickwork is wider than the external, i have added a rough sketch to illustrate & some closer photos which I hope makes it clearer. Yes original PVC fitters (before I bought the house) probably have bodged it up - house is ex council & being cynical I expect they ordered 10k of a standard size frame & made them fit the openings in all houses

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• henkeeper
• 11 Feb 2013
• 1

the brickwork in the foreground is the internal wall - the frame is 'foamed' into the external wall.

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• henkeeper
• 11 Feb 2013
• 1

in this one i have held a piece of 50mm celotex insulation up to the brickwork & window frame.

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• henkeeper
• 11 Feb 2013
• 1