Loads of work done but no post sorry

Hi Folks,

really sorry I haven't posted in a while just been so busy we had acroprops holding up the ceilings in both the living room and kitchen and with Karen not happy with this state of affairs. I thought it wise to crack on and get it fixed.When we rebuilt the wall I found that both concrete lintels had cracked. They had been laid flat to span the 500mm thick walls but were only 100mm thick so cracked. I found the original lintel in the garden it was at least 250mm thick but they had smashed the end of it so I couldn't use it.

Any way I wanted to use granite but there was no way I could lift two 250mm by 250mm by 1.2 meter stone lintels into position on my own. So I bought two green oak beams instead Its good for 400 years and will see me out. One problem its very heavy not as heavy as the stone but almost too much for me to lift.

The oak came rough sawn so I smoothed off with a smoothing plane and put a 45 degree chanfer on all the edges they came up quite nicely see I am still putting those boat building skills to work and yes I will finish the boat. Well once I've stopped the house from falling down around my ears.

Well they're in and they were heavy, I got the first one in by lifting one end at a time and sticking various objects under it as it got higher. HiFi cabinets; storage boxes; bricks that sort of thing. A bit dodgy and I ran out of things and still had 2 feet to lift the beam to get it in place. I did it almost broke me and I didn't have the strength to lift the second one. So I finished for the day and had a think.

Problem solved I had 6 2" by 4" by 8 feet timbers I bought to put the boat up in the garage roof so I could get the car in there as well. I used these to make a four post arrangement either side of the doorway and clamped two timber across the ends to form cross pieces to support the lintels. Then I just slackened the clamp and lifted each cross piece with a lever then tightened the clamp. I did each cross piece in turn a few inches at a time to lift the lintel. The Romans and Egphians would have been proud. One it was at the right height I just slid the lintel in place.

As you can see in the photo I cracked the stonework on the right hand side so had to rebuild if but its all done now and the beams are pointed in with lime mortar.

I originally wanted to cut mortise joints into one of the lintels to house the floor joists in the living room but the ends of the joists were rotten and had been propped up on the old lintels with bits of batten and covered up. Oh yes another bodge job but I can't leave something like that it would bother me.

I wanted to use timber joist hanger but all the ones I looked at looked too modern and would have looked just wrong on these old beams so I made some. I was aiming for an antique blacksmith look and I engraved a Celtic knot design into the one that's most on show. I would have done both but I don't have an engraver or a dremel so I made an engraving tool out of a centre punch and did the job by hand using a hammer. Looks good but took two days. The hangers are made from 50mm by 50mm by 6mm thick angle iron they aren't going anywhere and are heaver gauge steel than any of the Stimson strong ties I seen.One of the joists was a bit more rotten that the other so I extended the hanger out another 50mm using a box formed from 18 gauge sheet steel welded in place to form a joist shoe. I rolled the edge to make it more decorative. They were painted with zinc primer and Matt black paint. I fixed them with M10 150mm coach screw and bolts. I'll put some photos up when I can.

Got the lintels fixed but the floor boards in the landing are rotten so I had to do a temporary fix to make this safe. I put some boards over the joists while I was working so Karen and my daughter could get up and down stairs. Needless to say Karen was not pleased. Its sorted now sorry no photos the landing is restored and safe to walk on. The joist by the wall in the photo is rotten also and needs to be replaced so I will do a permanent job on the floor boards when I do this.

But that's a job for after Christmas I've run out of cash and energy to do it now.

KBO Steve