March 23rd 2025

Strong boys

The builder, whom Jono and Georgie had hoped would fit their new beautiful bespoke French window, turned up to do so at the end of February and decided for some reason that the job was beyond him and left. It fell to Jono and me, therefore, to do it ourselves over a long weekend at the beginning of March.

I still come out in a cold sweat when I remember putting a new window into the back wall of my first house. This required a concrete lintel that, in my youthful wisdom, I believed could be inserted without the need to support the wall above with Acros and strong boys. I remember all too well the feeling of panic as the mortar between several rows of bricks immediately above my new opening began to crack, and I started to imagine the following day's newspaper reports of 'Medical student buried by brick wall during DIY renovations'.

Acros and strong boys were in definite attendance this time round and Jono and I felt much more confident as we removed the old rotten box sash window before cutting out a row of bricks and installing a new lintel. It was then a matter of opening out the bottom of the wall, replacing the airbricks just below ground level, putting in a new damp proof membrane and making good the brickwork on both sides using bricklaying skills I learnt as a teenager, and last used almost thirty years ago.

Having allowed this to set overnight, it was a great relief the following morning to find out that our measurements were correct when the new French window frame slotted perfectly into place.

This weekend I returned to help Jono put in a mortar fillet to seal the gap around the outside of the frame. I was a little miffed to see that Jono, who has no previous pointing experience, has produced a much neater result on his side of the frame than I have on the other. Beginner's luck.