My friend has taken out a small bay window, enlarged the hole in the wall, and intends to put in a pair of French windows. The hole is now some 6-7' wide and 7-8" high. The doors going in are somewhat lower than this, 6 1/2' or so and some 5' wide, so I have told her to put an 8' lintel in above the doors. At the moment nothing is supporting the wall above, except the bricks themselves. As I intend to help her, I intend putting up 4 acro props, 2 at either end of the gap (in a foot or so from each end) with needles, then remove brickwork at the required height, bed it and insert the lintel on the outer skin. Then reinstate the brickwork above the lintel, removing the props as I rech them. I assume she will also need a lintel on the inner skin to support the joists above?
As I will have to close the brickwork up to the new doors, will I need to put in a double skin, and what is the best way to return it to leave a tidy finish inside? Or could I put up the outer skin, flush to the new casing and then just box out the interior returns?
The lass is skint, which is what got her into this fix in the first place by trying to improve her home and save a few quid, so I want to try and help her out.