On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 15:19:19 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
waxed lyrical about:

In article ,
Perry Gunn wrote:
Things appear to be worse than I thought - after my earlier post we
decided to remove more plaster and expose around the end of the RSJ to
give the builder more to see/work with and we've found that there's no
steel there!

The outer skin of the external wall has a concrete lintel and the
inner skin has a couple of 5x2 timbers stood on end! Just had a rush
trip to the hire shop and now got acrows supporting the opening and
the ceilings on either side just to be safe.

I've got a Victorian house with a bay only on the ground floor. The 9"
solid brick wall above that is supported by a timber lintel. It's survived
over 100 years. ;-)

Thanks for the reassurance - but they knew how to use timber then!
This isn't even a solid piece, it's two 5" x 2" lengths, on edge, &
they don't even appear to be bolted together.

Having spoken to the builder it doesn't look like it's too much of a
nightmare to put right phew! - although final cost will depend on
what the buildings inspector tells us we've got to do - and the
builder is an old friend of our future son-in-law so he's a known
quantity.

I don't really fancy this as a diy job - not when a slipup could
cause this much damage! Much as I hate paying builders, I'll only get
him to do what the inspector tells us we have to do.