No lintel above kitchen windows

isabelletot

Hi!

We've recently had our windows replaced and the fitters found out there's no lintel above the kitchen window.

We had a builder give us a quote for 190 to fix it but then he simply disappeared and never bothered to answer the calls. Now we have another one saying it costs 2k! 
The gap is already there and we can't even imagine how this could be priced as a 2k job... He said it's a lot more work because they need to render the outside??

Can anyone advice on the costs for this?

Thanks
Isa

tdawber

I think £190 is more like it, 2k is a joke price. 

AdrianC

Why on earth do you need a lintel there, anyway?

There's no load above the window. Just a single brick course, then the roof timbers. The window is perfectly capable of taking the weight of a single course.

Doozergirl

Wow.  

Well, it might be £190 to put the lintel in but how then are you finishing that off?   It's not going to look very pretty, so the new builder is right about that!    I can't see what else is around the window, inside and out.  

I can't believe anyone would leave something unsafe like that!   Thank goodness it's a single storey, though your brand new windows are taking some rather concentrated pressure there through the packers!  😳

ilikewatch2

Maybe the piece of trim they've stuck to the exterior is providing some structural support?

Doozergirl

AdrianC said:

Why on earth do you need a lintel there, anyway?

There's no load above the window. Just a single brick course, then the roof timbers. The window is perfectly capable of taking the weight of a single course.

You've worked out which way the roof joists are running from those pictures? 

I'd suggest from the bowing above the window internally that we're not necessarily talking about a course of bricks.   

Trying to imagine what the building inspector would say if we did that when building new extensions for people.   It's harder work not to put a catnic in! 

ilikewatch2

I have a Victorian terraced house with a later single storey kitchen extension at the rear which appears to be of a similar vintage to OP's. When I had my windows replaced there was a chunky piece of timber above the window supported by the wall either side which appeared to be doing the job of a lintel. The window fitters inspected it and were happy to leave it in place and install the new window.
It almost looks like something similar was in place above OP's original window and was removed along with it?

FreeBear

isabelletot said: We've recently had our windows replaced and the fitters found out there's no lintel above the kitchen window.

Why didn't the fitters put a lintel in when they did the window.

Quick & dirty would have been to fit a precast concrete beam across each leaf. A catnic pressed steel lintel would have been a little more expensive and made a bit more mess of the interior. Either way, it would have been much easier to do without the window in place.

Did they issue a FENSA (or equivalent) certificate for that window ?

stuart45

One course of brickwork can still damage a plastic window. It's not so much the weight of the bricks that does the damage. 
Bricks are at their smallest when first laid normally, and increase in size by up to 1mm in the next 15 years or so. This can cause the course of brickwork to exert downwards pressure enough to crack the glass or jam the windows from opening.
I have seen this happen on quite a few occasions.