Any builders on this site that can help ?

[Carlo]

My lintel above the back door has cracked and inside wall is damp much roughly to sort it ?

[AJC]

Wants render removing, making watertight and re rendering.

Rendering to existing render will be an art though.

[Carlo]

A spoke to a guy he said the metal beams in the lintel will have rotted and might need replaced I'm not fussed about the rough cast as I will most likely need to get it all painted

[mboon]

To replace which is what I would do would mean proping that part of the house up. Will need strong boys as well to go with the acros. Then its just a case of removing the old one and putting the new one in and building backup, then very gently undo the across while looking for cracks and listening.

No idea how much to do it labour wise

[Carlo]

It sounds like a nightmare of a job

[mboon]

I have just put in some big french doors in our house, we had to remove one window which was halfway over part of the french doors, move another window and remove and replace with smaller lintel and brick up a door way. We had to support the whole side of the house, remove pretty much all support to fit all the new beams in etc. Was a nightmare, but looks great for it now. Hardest part is matching in bricks etc.

You have to know what your doing as the weight of the brickwork/blockwork will come down if you dont do it right. My Dad has worked in the trade for 40 years, my brother works for a civil engineering company as well so between us we had it covered. That should be straight forward as its just holding everything up and removing/replacing what is already there.

[mboon]

This is what ours looked like a few weeks ago



As you can see from the blockwork, we had to makeup where the old lintels had been

This is how it looked a week ago



It is all painted now and looks great.

In the second photo you can see the beam we put in between the front room and the dinning room.

This was a solid wall before with a doorway to the left, our kitched was 50% of our downstairs so we changed it. Turned out we had to replace everything as it was scrap. New electrics, plumbing, heating, ceilings, walls, you name it

[Carlo]

Good job you done there mate I won't be doing it myself I have a guy coming mid week to price it just looking for a guide price so I npknow what to expect

[mboon]

Well if you do want to do it yourself its not rocket science. Just need some hard graft and to think before you undo something.

Would be interested to know what you get quoted. If they put a catnic in let me know what they charge you for it. We put a big on in our place, think it was 2.1 or something like that and it cost around £100. That will be the big parts bill, will need some blocks/bricks, sand cement, acros and strong boys (these dont cost much from the hire company) and some man hours.

[Carlo]

Will do mate thanks I'm starting to hate this house now it's a wimpy house built in the late 70's

[mboon]

I properly hate our house! My Mrs bought it without me really looking at it, kind of before we got together and if I had known how bad it was, we would never of bought it.

All I will say, is do it once and do it right. If you want something, spend that bit extra and have it, because you will only regret it after.

Out of interest, what is under the screed on your walls? brick or block?

[Carlo]

Brick I'm sure mate I seriously want to buy a new build I'm sick chasing my tail it's like a cossie this house

[mboon]

Hahaha I agree

[Smanf]

I think ripping the lintel out and starting again could probably be overkill. How long has the dampness been evident for? Rebar doesn't corrode over night, and I would have thought you would see the rust marks if this had started. A concrete repair may well be sufficient, but you would need to get someone that you trust to look at it (as obviously any builder is going to recommend the work that is most beneficial to his bank account )

Hazard a very rough guess at the cost for a builder to replace it from start to finish, I rekon you are looking in the region of around £800. You'll have to let me know how far out I am!!

I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a repair though, it would be fraction of that cost or you could probably do it yourself.

What area are you in?

[Carlo]

Hi mate im 10 mins from galsgow , i put a post up on pasionford as well a few builders there reckon the crack happened when i got my new doors & windows put in they disturbed the wall when fitting or removing the old door , which kinda makws sense the wall has been damp for about 5 month & crack appeared last year but i just thought it was the roughcast or i would have done something about it