The original lintel above the front door is made from 3 pieces of oak, the outer piece was looking a little rotten …
So the outer section only is replaced with a nice new pre-stressed concrete lintel that was imported from the UK! I originally planned to put 3 of these Wickes concrete lintels in the doorway and remove all the pieces of Oak (there were 3 pieces of Oak spanning the doorway). Unfortunately the span on the inside of the door was greater that the outside span, so the concrete lintels that we had bought from England were not long enough. The French concrete lintels available in Point.P. did not seem to have any rebar in them, so I decided to leave one of the Oak lintels in place on the inside of the door.
HEALTH AND SAFETY WARNING : This is not the correct way to replace a lintel, it should be supported by a piece of timber passing through the wall resting on acro props on either side of the wall.
None of the stone above the doorway fell in to the opening when the original oak lintel was removed. Whilst we had placed scaffold in the wall to prevent the wall from collapsing, the scaffold never took the weight of the wall. In fact the stones above the doorway hardly moved at all. There was slight movement when we pulled one end of the original lintel out of the wall, I think that pointing all the stonework just above the doorway a couple of days before we replaced the lintel prevented any major stone movement.
Hi Matt
What an interesting and inspiring website. Now I’ve seen your photos and advice on lintel replacement I’ve run out of excuses for not doing my own! From your photo, I couldn’t tell what size lintel (cross-section, not length) you’ve used – is it 65 x 100mm or double that?
BTW from the dates on your photos I reckon my own French house restoration in Brittany must be moving along at the same pace as yours – it’s uncanny, I seem to have tackled many of the same jobs as you over the past 5 years!
Keep it up, it’ll be worth it in the end, that’s what I tell myself and my long-suffering friends …
Chris
Hi Chris
I think the lintels were 70 x 100, in the UK at the moment so I can’t check. Got them from Wickes.
Thanks for your comments,
Matt