Perry Gunn wrote:
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!

sounds good.

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.

?

Wood lintels are standard on Victorian houses, and work fine, as long
as they dont rot.

A lot of old houses of course have no lintels at all, which is a bit
naughty, but they do normally stay up.


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.

this isnt making much sense. Lay off the caffeine.


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 -

you dont have to do anything.


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.

You really need to calm down then look at all this again. Meanwhile I'd
be returning the props, if it were my place.

I'm not tryint to tell you what to do, the decisions are all yours, and
you'll live with the results.


NT