The brickwork, plaster, rendering, bay window and leaded flat roof above the replacement window weighed in at over a ton and a half!! You might think that EAS would bother to work this out. Or might bother to pass this information to the subcontractors who actually make EAS windows for them. Or might take the trouble to find out how the windows they supply  are actually constructed–and whether they can actually bear the weight they need to support.

You might suppose all those things–and you’d be completely and utterly wrong. Our structural engineer wanted information from EAS to show that the window installation they fitted was up to carrying the load above it. After weeks of emails and telephone calls they hadn’t provided this information–and didn’t seem able to (unless, of course they had their reasons to keep the information to themselves!).

In the end EAS brought in their own structural engineer–and in his report he concluded “no comment can be made with regard to the support structure between the (corner) posts”!! EAS had fitted the windows without having a clue about how the 9 foot width replacement window was constructed–and  EAS’ supplier either couldn’t or wouldn’t provide that information to their engineer. You don’t even have to have GCSE physics to know that if a load bearing beam is supported at either end, it doesn’t matter how strong the  supports at each end are. If the beam isn’t strong enough, if there aren’t supports in the middle (or they’re too weak), or if the load in the middle is too big, it’s going to give way.