Buying house with no lintels

mallen

Hi, I'm buying a house and looking to complete next month. I have just spoken to a local window fitter as I am looking to replace the French doors and kitchen window. Surprisingly the window fitter has actually done work on this house before and replaced the double glazing. He has just mentioned that none of the houses in this part of town were built with lintels?! The house is 1960s brick. What are people's opinions on this, is it going to be a very expensive job putting lintels into every window when I replace the windows. He is coming round to quote this weekend.

EssexExile

If it's anything like our house they just put in a piece of angle iron. It made no difference to the quote.

d0nkeyk0ng

We had a couple of people come round. One just did measuring up and went away. The other said they would need to check if there are lintels installed and it'd be £80 for each one if needed.

Richard_Overton_2911

A 1960's House with no lintels?...........Really ?. An angle iron bridging the opening with bricks laid on top I would have thought would be pre WWI. Brickwork arches or swept head brickwork would be self supporting and generally pre-WWI again.

I don't think I've ever seen a post WW2 house with no lintels so a photo or 2 would be good..

FreeBear

If the construction is anything like my 1920s semi, there will be a lintel on the inner leaf. The outer leaf relies on the timber window frame to support the bricks above - Installing a length of angle iron is pretty standard fair in this situation.

mallen

Thanks for your replies. Window fitter going in Friday so will update on his recommendation.

Richard_Overton_2911

mallen wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. Window fitter going in Friday so will update on his recommendation.

Don't go by 1 mans opinion because it could be a very expensive mistake.What did the survey show up?.

You mention you intend to replace a pair of French doors . I'm guessing the overall width of the frame will be between 1300-1500mm and no metal bar will hold up coarses of brickwork and it would show clear signs of sagging so have a look at the brickwork above the doors.

EssexExile

Ours is a 1950 house, it had wooden frames with crittall windows when built, no lintels on the outer leaf. In the 70s the windows were replaced with aluminium double glazing in hardwood frames, still no lintels. Between then & last year the top of one window sagged a little.
We had all new windows last year & they put an angle iron in that one & rebuilt the brickwork above it. I sought advice from a good builder friend before hand & he advised that that would be sufficient, it's normal practice. Many of the windows are well over 1500mm.