door and window lintels

[Rich]

I have just removed all the plaster off the interior of an external facing wall in a victorian terrace which has (unfortunately) had UPVC door and window fitted. Going to get it replastered after Christmas I hope! However, there doesn't seem to be any visible lintel on the inside wall - in the outside part of the wall there are decorative brick arches supporting, but on the inside there are bricks end to end, apparently supported by nothing! I guess that further up the wall, the bricks from outer and inner will begin to mesh together again (as in a standard solid 9" wall), but what is holding up the bricks immediately above window and door frames - they are not resting on the UPVC???? Can you get bricks with metal lintels running through the center of them which I wouldn't be able to see?

Also - on the bricks above the window, there appears to be clay tiles cemented to the underside - what purpose do these serve, as 2 have now fallen away with removal of the plaster

TIA,

Richard.

[Niel A. Farrow]

Sorry, can't answer your question but can tell you that I have a similar house and similar situation. Mine was on a front door that had been converted to a window, and in my case te bricks were resting on the UPVC, but not really supporting it. Must have been this way for 10-20 years? I put a lintle supporting the inner (solid 9" brick walls) bricks. Probably uneccesary since the previous arrangement was also supporting 3 1st foor joists adequately!. Neil

[Rich]

Cheers - just worried that it may all fall down when I start removing plaster and banging around etc.!

ANybody else out there experienced a similair situation??

[take away nojunk]

I would prosume that the original door casing was considered enough support in the "old days", when uvpc man fit new windows wouldn't have bothered him, if i was doing job i would have put lintel in above, can't you do this??

[Lobster]

Not sure whether this applies in your case, but in the Old Days it was common not to have lintels above windows because (a) building regs weren't so fussy (where there any building regs then?) and (b) window frames were usually a lot more substantial than modern equivalents and may have acted as their "own" lintel. uPVC installers should be well aware of this, and should recommend installation of lintels where appropriate. The operative word being "should"...

David