Is this a structural door frame?

Hi Everyone,
I am currently looking at modernising my 1970's house in Brisbane. Some of the windows are timber casement windows, and some are aluminium windows. My intention is to replace with powdercoated aluminium windows.

However the issue I have at the moment is with the french doors shown in the picture. I would like to replace this window/door with a glass sliding door that has half opening one way and the other opening the opposite direction. The doors have been added to the house as originally the verandah was closed in. When the last owner opened it back up, I guess he couldnt get the right size doors. There is a large gap in the centre and at the bottom. Thats after they added a 50mm strip of timber at the bottom.

The width of the whole opening is 2905mm. Is it possible the timber that the doors are attached to is strucutral? Speaking to G James glass today their glass doors do not have strucural pillars therefor would I need a lintel??

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers
Steve

Its vaguely possible that there is a steel section hidden in there, but I very much doubt it as three meters isn't that much of a span. (I can't see it making sense to do it that way unless there was badly restricted head room or some other weird reason like it was built during 'National Lintel Shortage' week or 'I got this crazy door really cheap so I am going to use it no matter how much it costs to do so' day).

You might find that the 50mm at the bottom of the door was a deliberate decision to make sure that there was a good break between the outside level and the door sill - otherwise heavy rains could pool by the door and give you the fun of soggy carpets. Otherwise - if its three meters off the ground on a well drained balcony - it could just be 'got it cheap' or 'got the measurements wrong' purchasing, or they were trying to match the height of the tops of nearby windows.

Thanks for the reply.

From what I have worked out, and the gaps that still remain with the door, the old owner must have dug the doors out from somewhere else, as they only just close together with a couple of mm to spare. The door frame and glass would be original I would assume. The 50mm lip that was put on the bottom of the frame is in addition at the lip already there. Between the added lip and the bottom of the door is around 20mm, hence me putting the weather strips in to stop the cold air in winter. If you have a look closely, there are old rubber door stops on the bottom of the window frame. The new (old) doors do not make contact with those stoppers :)

I highly doubt there is steel hidden. The timber looks to be around 35x70mm timber. I guess I could have some timber handy when it comes time to knock out the timber in case it is structural, but Im guessing it wont be.

If better photos are needed, let me know!
Cheers
Steve

Hi Steve,
I guess that the ceiling inside is higher than what we see in the photo, like 300 or so. Even if there is no lintel there now, I'd be putting one in for the new doors.
3M is a fair span. Before you order your new door, take off the internal trim, even the gyprock above the door head to find out what is going on.
You have to stick to standard size doors to be cost effective. It is always cheaper to alter the studwork etc than order special door size, toughened glass and all that.

Cheers Bill

I'd be suprised if this window/door is load bearing. If it is then I'd guess that it doesn't conform to engineering spec anyway and therefore should be fixed properly if it is loadbeariring.

I'm guessing from the limited area of the photo that your roof trusses are running along that wall so I wouldn't call it a load bearing wall but the ceiling still needs some support over this opening.

Hi Kyron,
I have attached another photo, this one is internal. I have edited out the person sitting behind the door to protect privacy. This photo is when the tenants were renting the house.

It looks like I may be putting a window in its place instead of the door The door is an extra $1100. After bilbee's suggestion, I will most likely rip out the surrounding gyprock just to be sure.

The rood trusses all rest on that part of the house. This house is a typical QLD rectangle on stilts. The house has a skillion roof.

Cheers
Steve

Hi again,
Ive realised how bad those past few photos have been so I just took some fresh photos which hopefully provides more detail.
Cheers
Steve