Wooden lintel & old door frame, replace / remove?

[markeh]

Hi,

I’m in the process of preparing my house to be plastered but I’m not sure what to do about one particular doorway.

It’s a 1930’s semi with a single storey timber frame extension on the back. The doorway between the main house and this extension was once the back door and the frame for this was never removed, just hidden with batons and hardboard then lining papered over. I have removed a lot of this for plastering. I would also like to remove this door frame but I’m not sure if it’s safe to do so.

There’s also wooden lintel above this doorway which isn’t rotten but all the plaster around it was loose.

I’d really like to know:

Can i safely remove this doorframe? Most of it looks to be under the cavity but it’s also partially under the lintel.

Is there any reason to replace this wooden lintel with a concrete lintel? Any idea how much a builder would charge?

photos attached

thanks

 

[bobasd]

for a 1930's build that's a pretty thick wall - it looks more like a cottage wall?


you show a timber lintel, and presumably there's another timber lintel that was installed at the same time - so it would be safe to remove the remnants of frames.
do it slowly and carefully or you might pull slabs of plaster/render off the wall surfaces - there might even be plaster laths?

to remove the two lintels use two Strong Boys or 4 x Acrows and 2 x needles.
but first remove all cover plaster.