Missing lintel

[Brian Drury]

This image:

it all.

I am adding a mini access chamber for the new toilet in my bungalow loft conversion. Exposing the existing soil pipe reveals more of the original bodgery from when the bungalow was built (C 1958)

The gaping hole is directly beneath a window so the load is the 18 courses of brick below the window. The grey thing is the incoming 1/2 inch copper water main that I have insulated as its a bit cold here at the moment.

The building is one of a group of 65 very similar bungalows thrown up by captain bodge at minimum cost. As far as I am aware they will probably all have the soil access installed in the same way and I am not aware that any have developed serious structural problems.

There are a couple of cracks in the brickwork just visible in the image.

My cunning plan is to add a couple of short lintels built on two courses of brick that is simply mortared to the vertical surface on either side. I don't want to mess about trying to properly bond into the existing brick work in case I make matters worse.

Does the team think that would be acceptable? Would BCO like it?

Brian

[Tim Watts]

Brian Drury wibbled on Wednesday 03 March 2010 09:32

You wouldn't get a catastrophic collapse of the house with that - just a few bricks above at worst in a triangle. But as you say, if there are cracks starting it would be prudent to do something.

What I would do is to shield the pipes with some ply boxing and fill the rest of the space with concrete - that should be more than satisfactory. Build some shuttering that would form a wall of concrete 6-8" or so out from the face of the brick for the width of the hole. The shuttering also prevents the concrete sitting on the pipes directly. With 6-8" of gap, you'd be able to shovel in concrete from the top and ram it well under the bricks.

That will set it solid and prevent any further movement.

If you wanted, you could resin anchor a few (6-8) bits of 1/4" bar into the bricks at various angles to help the concrete lock, but for a small hole, that might be unnecessary.

HTH

Tim

[NT]

Worst case scenario is the 3 unsupported bricks above the opening come loose and need remortaring - but even thats not likely. I wouldnt worry about it at all. The rest of the brickwork above is supported by interlocking.

NT

[Cicero]

says it all.

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There wouldn't appear to be any imminent danger of collapse as it's been like that for about 50 years.

If it bothers you, you could build in the missing four brick courses on either side, possibly with a bit of corbelling on the left hand side but still leaving a gap immediately adjacent to the pipe to allow for any future modification.

Cic.

[John Rumm]

I don't think I would bother - its not a big enough opening to cause any concern. There are no more than about 3 bricks there that are unsupported.

[NT]

Even those 3 bricks are supported middlingly well, but not perfectly, by their inability to tilt, any attampt to do so only locks them in place.

NT