Lintel

[whiskeryron]

My daughter & her husband have put their house up for sale & the prospective purchaser's surveyor has noted that the front lounge d/g window has been installed without a lintel. Would this be a major operation & would the window have to be removed in order to install a lintel ?. When first putting the d/g window in (before my daughter moved in) how would the fitters remove & install the new window without the front wall collapsing ?.

WR.

[boxtops]

I am no builder, but if there is no lintel, then IMO the window is holding up the wall of the house.....

[tonyav]

Jaysus, ron thats seriously Dodgy.

[Mammar]

That sounds like a game of Jenga. Which bit do you move first?

[Uriah Heep]

There is no simple answer to this. How as this come about? Is the window an after thought ie since the house was built. What are the structural details ie brick/block wall, timber frame etc? In the worst case senario the window will have to be removed, the wall supported using needles and a lintel inserted. It is unlikely that the opening size will remain the same and a new window will have to be fitted. Are we talking single, one and a half or two storey. Is it possible that the surveyor is wrong?

[boxtops]

When I took down a central wall in my house a while ago, I was appalled to be told that the whole of the centre of the house was held up by a single skin brick was with a large internal window in the middle of it. Half a dozen Acros later and a very large beam, I have my archway.....

[whiskeryron]

Thanks for your answers so far. When my daughter queried this with the aforementioned surveyor she & my sil were told '' we are coming across this all the time'', when dg window company's put windows in this is what they do & immediately above the window is a row of end on bricks & it is only the outside brick skin that is holding up the wall above. Incidentally he did say it was no big deal at the moment but eventually the pressure would make it difficult to open the transom, we are wondering if this would affect the sale & at the moment we are waiting for the official report so that it can be discussed.

WR.

[jackthehat]

Was there already an opening for the window to go into, Ron?

[nannybooby]

Ron , you can put a lintel in above the window using strong boys (like an Acrow bar not desperate dan types) to support the wall while a slot is cut and the lintel inserted and the mortat goes off .We had to do it here, you just need a good builder.

[Old_Geezer]

I'm probably going to make a fool of myself now, but in most modern bay windows don't they omit any lintel anyway ? I always used to think the wall above was well supported but I later discovered it tends to be simple wooden frame and whatever to look as if it is solid. It's only the older ones where you can see a decent pillar at the corners where a lintel could be sat.

BTW what's DG ?

[Old_Geezer]

Thsat said i guess one could be hidden at the back of the bay ?

[jackthehat]

O_G - the lintol spans the top of the opening; a bay window is bonded into the brickwork around.

[Frank97]

DG - Double Glazing.

[Canary42]

Without a lintel, buyers will most likely be put off when the survey reveals it (and their mortgage Company will probably insist on one anyway before releasing the money).

Did your daughter have a survey done when she bought the house, if so any cost incurred should come from suing the surveyor I would have thought.

[whiskeryron]

Yes jth, apparently before they bought the house, all round double glazing was installed & therefore all the windows are replacements for the original wooden ones. We do not know if there are window lintels elsewhere as only the particular one in question was mentioned.

WR.

[jackthehat]

It is not the job of a double-glazing company to mess about installing lintols where they are replacing units.

When was the house built and is the soldier-course flat or arched?

[whiskeryron]

The house in question was built in late 1930s & I think that houses in that period had houses without lintels.

WR.

[whiskeryron]

Flat.

[jackthehat]

That's not necessarily true, Ron.
Wooden lintols were often used, especially internally.
When you say 'end on bricks' I assumed you meant a vertical soldier course......was I correct?

[jake-the-peg]

I think gravity was still there in the 30s

A brief history of walls including lintels 1930-50 at the bottom right hand side of page 3

https://environment7.uwe.ac.uk/resources/constructionsample/Conweb/house_ages/evolution_walls.pdf

[SlackAlice]

Have a look at this from previous posts, which may cover some of the problems.
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Home-and-Garden/DIY/Question629459.html

Many of the houses here are similar in build but are cavity walls. The inner brick wall does have a lintel.