mal wrote:
A ground floor window frame of my house has a row of bricks across the top of it
as a kind of lintel. The bricks are arranged vertically oriented and placed side
by side across the top of the frame. On top of the bricks is a row of tiles that
stick out a bit to form a narrow shelf. The house was built in the 50's.

Afai can see, those bricks *are* the lintel. If that is the case, is the
(wooden) window frame taking all the load of the wall above it? I'm thinking of
replacing the frame with uPvc double glazing and am concerned about plastic
being able to take that kind of load.

I'd say it's likely that the wooden frame is load bearing. But assuming
you have a cavity wall, the 1st floor joists are likely to be bearing on
the inner leaf of the wall, and there may well actually be a lintel on
the inner leaf. That would limit the load on the window frame, and if
you were to remove it unsupported, the risk is that an area of bricks
forming an isoceles triangle from the corners above the window opening
(IYSWIM) could fall; but not the entire house. NB - lots of assumptions
here; I'm not a structural engineer; just my personal experience.

If the above is correct, you'd need to support the external wall with
props while a lintel is fitted (probably an L-section steel one) to the
external wall, then you can fit the upvc window. Old timber windows
were made pretty strong, a lot more so than modern upvc equivalents.

I believe there are uPVC windows with built-in steels which may help?
Don't know any more than that.

Is there perhaps a real lintel behind those bricks? Thanks for some advice on
this as I'm not too keen on the wall of my house falling down if I get it wrong!

Might be, might well not be. Can be very hard to tell. Is there any
evidence of a thin steel plate between the top of the window and the
first bricks? (Might not be visible even if it's present).

Have any of your neighbours houses of the same age and design had their
windows replaced? Might be a source of info?

You can be sure that if you get a DG company in, they will tell you
whatever you have now is fine; they aren't geared up to fitting lintels
and will slap in a new window and run. Later on you'll likely get
sagging brickwork, diagonal cracks in the mortar above the windows,
windows which warp and jam shut.

hth
David

"Lobster" wrote in message
...
mal wrote:
A ground floor window frame of my house has a row of bricks across the
top of it
as a kind of lintel. The bricks are arranged vertically oriented and
placed side
by side across the top of the frame. On top of the bricks is a row of
tiles that
stick out a bit to form a narrow shelf. The house was built in the 50's.

Afai can see, those bricks *are* the lintel. If that is the case, is the
(wooden) window frame taking all the load of the wall above it? I'm
thinking of
replacing the frame with uPvc double glazing and am concerned about
plastic
being able to take that kind of load.


I don't know if its any help but my sons house where we are building an
extension had a plastic window fitted after a wooden one was taken out a few
years back (the brickwork is not vertical above window). The window people
did not fit a lintel and the course of bricks above window dropped 1/8 inch
cracking mortar. I have just fitted a 12mm stainless steel plate today
(after taking advice) full length of window to act as lintel and it seems to
have done the trick. The inside load bearing leaf was fitted with lintel
and I cant see why they didn't bother with outside brick leaf. In passing
all the houses in my street built in the 50s had "soldier" brickwork above
the wooden windows and no lintels. All now have plastic replacement windows
and the brickwork is sound. You can also get angle lintels (again advice
received from group) from builders merchants.
Neil

My understanding (though not backed up by any real experience) is that
the lintel is normally as wide as the inner leaf plus the cavity with a
lip on the top or bottom that juts out into the outer leaf. The lintel
fills the cavity (and has a damp-proof layer on top) so that water
dripping down the cavity doesn't rot the window from the inside. The
lip on the lintel helps to support the outer wall. I really doubt that
the brick row that you describe would be strong enough to support
anything much more than its own weight.

I may be totally wrong, so don't rely on this!

Oh, and those tiles that stick out above the "brick lintel" are to
throw off any streams of water running down the wall above the window
so they don't turn in when they meet the openning and rot the window
frame.

Matt Beard wrote:
My understanding (though not backed up by any real experience) is that
the lintel is normally as wide as the inner leaf plus the cavity with a
lip on the top or bottom that juts out into the outer leaf. The lintel
fills the cavity (and has a damp-proof layer on top) so that water
dripping down the cavity doesn't rot the window from the inside. The
lip on the lintel helps to support the outer wall. I really doubt that
the brick row that you describe would be strong enough to support
anything much more than its own weight.

I'm sure that's the case in modern builds, but wasn't always the case;
certainly wasn't in the house I had in mind when replying earlier. But
very hard to tell either way without some surgery :-(

David

On Wed, 10 Aug 2005 10:10:30 GMT, mal wrote:

A ground floor window frame of my house has a row of bricks across the top of it
as a kind of lintel. The bricks are arranged vertically oriented and placed side
by side across the top of the frame. On top of the bricks is a row of tiles that
stick out a bit to form a narrow shelf. The house was built in the 50's.

Afai can see, those bricks *are* the lintel. If that is the case, is the
(wooden) window frame taking all the load of the wall above it? I'm thinking of
replacing the frame with uPvc double glazing and am concerned about plastic
being able to take that kind of load.

Is there perhaps a real lintel behind those bricks? Thanks for some advice on
this as I'm not too keen on the wall of my house falling down if I get it wrong!

The bricks are called soldiers, often there is a steel lintel in there
as well, or there is in my house of the same age. I used to have the
same worry you do.

The DG company should fit a proper lintel when they fit the windows,
unless of cource they find one in there.

Rick

mal wrote:
On Wed, 10 Aug 2005 21:45:32 GMT, Rick wrote:


The DG company should fit a proper lintel when they fit the windows,
unless of cource they find one in there.

Yeah, right!! (but if course, they should...)

Thanks all. Can anyone post an ascii-art side view of such a possible lintel for
me? (as I can't see how it might sit)

If you just need a lintel in the outer leaf, then you could use
something like this:
http://www.hy-ten.co.uk/pages/lintel_la2.htm

But if you need lintels in both leaves, then it's something like this:
http://www.hy-ten.co.uk/pages/lintel_cb70hd.htm

NB I'm NOT suggesting these are the correct specs for what you actually
need, I'm just providing them as pictures instead of ASCII art, OK?!!

David