Thread: Fitting/packing steel beams- please help.

Greetings all.

I'm not sure it comes under the heading of "woodworkforum", but you guys seem to have your head around all things building, so here goes:

Construction type; Double brick, tiled roof, single storey, about 60 years old.

I'm joining my back window and back door, and putting in a bifold door. The gap will be spanned with 200PFC with flat plate welded to top and bottom for the brickwork(Beam weight; 192Kg). It will bear 230 at either end, and sit across both leaves of the wall. (The internal leaf is the load bearing wall and will have 4 original courses of brick above the beam. The outer leaf is not load bearing and will have 2.5 original courses above beam).

All advise is most appreciated;

A; Because the courses of the inner and outer leaves do not line up horizontally, what can I use to get them level to hold the beam (split half bricks with mortar/ steel packers)?

B; The reason they were originally adjusted to not be level, is so the window pushes out against the outer brick, and was plastered in on the inside; Should my new beam sit at the level dictated by the courses of brick in the outer leaf, or the inner leaf?

C; What can I use to pack the small gap that will be left between the top of my new beam and the bottom of my original bricks, and also under the ends of the beam (remember it is 192Kg of beam plus house). I was thinking that "No More Nails" stuff dries pretty hard, but some of you guys may cringe??

Thanks in advance for your advise.