Unsupported wall!!??

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13 Dec 2023
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I am planning a Kitchen/diner project. Already had the single skin wall between kitchen and what used to be the diner taken out and supporting steel put in. The diner adjoins a single storey extension via an opening which used to be the French doors to the garden. So we are talking the double skimmed outer wall ( before the extension was built) of the house. Anyway I recently found that this doorway also used to have a window next to it which has been infilled. I thought I'd excavate with the idea that I could widen this opening between the rooms. I thought I'd better check how the opening was supported and to my surprise I can't find any lintel. Just a soldier course spanning the whole opening including over the infilled window. Seems weird given this is the original wall of the house. I'd expect some kind of lintel or frame behind the soldier course but there's nothing I can't believe there is no support and they were relying on the window and door frame. And the door opening has been open for over 25 years without a door in it. I've put some photos in the first shows where I dug out some infill under the soldier course. I prob need to explore more but it would be helpful to know what I am looking for. Any ideas?
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Not uncommon for windows to rely on corbelling with no lintel.

Blup
 
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Its not corbelling , its soldiers.
That door opening just being a row of soldiers is a bit scary
Yes, that does seem scary. I think the inner skin takes most of the load so I think I need to explore a bit more as to whether there's a lintel or f some sort of that side. Got no choice but to dig around a bit more I think. Still odd that these house would have been built without lintels. Can't imagine the door and window frames gave the support
 
I should think a new beam is in at the right hand side of the existing opening.

Not having a lintel in the original window is not uncommon, or it might have been removed to allow installation of the new opening.
 

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