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.

How the *%$^ did that get through building regs - and it must have
because when we brought the house 2 years ago our solicitor checked
that all the documentation for the 2 extensions was correct & signed
off.

We've phoned the council and have got the building inspector coming
tomorrow to tell us what size RSJ to put in and decide if we're going
to need to rebuild the piers with engineering bricks.

So much for a (relatively) simple 'off-with-the-old, on-with-the-new'
replastering of the lounge.

Perry

I would have thought that if the wooden lintel had not been strong enough
the cracks would have been upstairs above the lintel not downstairs.

Simon