Cement steel or wood lintel ?

[Barry Chuckle]

Hi, I wonder if anyone reading this could give me some advice please..
I have attached a pic. Basically I want to rip the window out and fit some french doors.
However the stone lintel above the window isn't long enough.
Would I be able to put a steel or wooden lintel in here like 5.5ft long ? Or do I need a stone one ?
Obviously I'd prefer to fit a wooden one as it's going to be very heavy and awkward getting a lintel in there that's basically almost the whole length of the space available. I haven't purchased any doors yet, but I figure the bigger the lintel the bigger the doors I can fit. You can also see the crack to the top right of the window where it looks like it's dropped slightly anyway and needs replacing.
Any advice would be much appreciated and thanks for taking your time to read my short novel
P.S the soil pipe to the left which would be in the way is getting cut off and blocked as it was only servicing an upstairs toilet, which is now a bedroom

 

[tomfe]

Looks like a cavity wall so a cavity lintel. A 1.8m one wont be heavy at all or use 2 concrete ones. I doubt there is a stone lintel as it's brick house.
Does that window open easily, they used to build on top of the old wooden framed windows as they could take the weight. It does look like they have bodged a lintel above the pvcu window but made it the same size as the original opening.

I would not go any further left as you'd remove part of the other wall, with this take it slow as you never know what you'll find. Same with the cast iron soil, they can be a bit of a bummer at times.

Is your boundary just off to the right?

 

[Barry Chuckle]

Hey, thanks for the reply.
Yes my boundary is off to the right there. Yes the window opens easily.
I was thinking of replacing the original lintel above the window. However now I think about it, I don't think my french/patio doors will be that high, perhaps I could
leave well enough alone and simply fit a new lintel beneath the old one at the right height, the more I think about it the more this seems to be an option. Never undertook DIY
at this scale or level before so am a bit befuddled