Making Good The Builder's Work

Having plastered up the doorway, still wet in this picture, although quite a good finish, it was time to move on to the next problem. Our builders removed our old windows and replaced them with new windows in the outer wall that they built, however, they did not fit lintels over the apertures that the removal of the windows etc., had left. Our apertures are topped by an unsupported line of bricks!  Neither I, nor the building inspector noticed this. To fit a normal lintel at this late stage is, to say the least very difficult; as it would involve supporting the ceiling beams etc., while removing quite a bit of the inner wall, so I decided to arrive at my own solution. I am a chartered engineer, with quite a bit of experience in many engineering areas other than my own specialist one, so calculating the forces for a simple structure and then fabricating it in situ is not a problem. I decided to use a straight forward L section beam as I could, with care, scrape out the mortar from between the bricks on either side of the window, slide the beam into the cavity and lift it so that, by brining it towards the kitchen, it could be slid into the horizontal slots formed by removal of the mortar. The beam could then be jacked up into position, the mortar replaced and an additional retaining and supporting plate fitted to each side of the aperture. 
Todays blip shows the situation just prior to the start of this work.