Way back in August ... 2022
I posted this pic of a hole we'd made in the chicken shed wall:
which elicited the following reaction from the venerable kadman:
As remarked at the time, there was a (suggestion of a) concrete lintel at that point in the wall, which guided our decision to make the hole just there. Not much of a one, but enough to hold things together:kadman wrote: ↑Thu Aug 04, 2022 11:19 pm You do realise that you have broken a doorway through a wall, formed an ope and now have no overhead support lintel. I hate to piss on your cornflakes, but thats a recipe for disaster.
You should have formed holes in the wall, put in supports with screwjacks to support the wall over head, removed enough stonework to place in a concrete or steel lintel. And made good.
That said, SonNo.1 who was tasked with the demolition at the time expressed his doubts as to the solidity of the wall left and right at the top of the opening, so we left it slightly arched until we could fit a beefier lintel. And then Life got in the way, the Prodigal Son took off for foreign parts, and nothing futher was done. I monitored the structure overhead, saw no movement, so repeatedly postponed the rest of the work until I could count on someone to help.
Finally, perfectly timed for my return from a pre-Christmas trip to Ireland, one hard-labouring festival friend invited herself to stay for a week, so "fit the lintel" got rapidly moved to the top of the To Do list. And it was done.
I had, in fact, previously identified which stones I'd be removing, cut an old oak beam to size and bolted a timber support to the stones above, so - for once - the job was ready to start with no additional prep needed, other than to get a quartet of simple jacks to stand in for Acrow props which I don't have; and as it turned out, their quick-release nature made it very convenient to re-position them as the work progressed, and thus ensure maximum strategic support.
Out came the stones, carefully, one by one, with my assistant watching for any unexpected movement (none seen), leaving a nice neat hole of the exact dimensions anticipated:
It all went very smoothly, and in went a first new lintel ...
... and then the second, with the stonework above made good straight away.
Once the mortar had set, I fitted a couple of posts to each side of the opening to frame the new doorway, and to provide a vertical guide for tidying up the stonework. These timbers will remain exposed (as will the outer face of the lintel)
Et voilà. I had hoped to spend the month of January doing pointing and other stonework, but it was just too fekkin cold, wet, windy and generally miserable, so I put it off till February. But it was just too fekking cold, wet, windy and generally miserable, so I put it off till March. But it's forecast to be just too fekkin cold, wet, windy and generally miserable so fekkitanyway. Maybe I'll get it done this year; maybe not.
However, looking back at that photo from August 2022, I see that I have made progress in other respects - a concrete sub-floor with wet underfloor heating has been laid throughout, the walls have been insulated and drylined throughout, the ceilings are plasterboarded throughout, and all the electrical cabling is in place.
Doors and windows became the January objective, but it was just too fekking cold, wet, windy and generally miserable .... so progress was slow, but forwards all the same. They can have a thread of their own.
