Just purchased a 1950's ex council house that has a single skin wall side extension, only 1 storey and a flat roof Not of sure the material of roof but hopefully not asbestos. But basically i want to knock out a internal wall to make it longer. How should I go about this, do i need to put a lintel in? If i do i was just going to mimic the same setup as the lintel already in room, build a column up where the wall is then put lintel across and remove wall. Ive done my research and know the type & size of lintel i need. When installing a lintel do i need to wedge it up against the roof or just making it a tight fit suffice? Ive probably explained this really bad, so apologies in advance.
You have done your research and know what type and size of lintel you require and therefore must have worked out what load it is going to take so why ask if you need s lintel? Wedge it up or a tight fit, same thing?
I just measured the current lintel in place and found one that matches the Length, Width and Depth, so id assume the load would be fine. What I mean by wedge it up is, do I need to get a couple of acrows to hold lintel against ceiling then put wedges underneath if there’s any gaps, or just putting in place even if there’s slight space above be alright.
The correct way is to butter the top of the Lintel/RSJ/Beam with a decent mortar mix say 4 to 1 sand/cement, then carefully lift it into position and have a third pair of hands pinching the acrows up until they’re nice and tight, not too tight though otherwise you’ll start disturbing brickwork up above, then jam slate or steel shims under the bearing points of the beam until everything is compacted tightly. Leave a couple of days for the mortar to go off and err on the side of caution, then strike the acrows and hopefully your house will stay up.