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Phil L Phil L is offline
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Default Dropped bricks above window

Graham Jones wrote:
On 16/07/2010 15:01, Graham Jones wrote:
Hello,

Continuing my inspection of the brickwork I have noticed that the
bricks above the kitchen window have dropped slightly and there are
zig-zag cracks in the mortar going up and in from the corners.

The lintel above the window is a row of bricks placed on end
(verticalically),

It is these vertical bricks that have dropped causing the brickwork
above to drop.

9 years ago we had all the windows replaced with uPVC frames. This
may be the cause as uPVC frames aren't structual. But this would
mean the old wooden frames were taking some of the weight. Could
this be right? Would it have been designed this way?

So how do I fix it and also could someone explain how bricks placed
on end work as a lintel? I don't really see it myself.

Thanks,

Graham


Some further info. The uPVC window hasn't bowed in any way. Also the
house is a cavity wall construction. All the windows in the house have
solider bricks (I've just found out there are called this!) in the
external walls above them as lintels.


The soldiers aren't acting as lintels, they are stood upright on a lintel,
you just can't see it.


But what about the internal walls, would these too have soldier bricks
or would these have proper lintels. There are no internal signs of
problems above the kitchen window.


The internal walls, depending on the age, could be timber, concrete or metal
lintels, probably metal as it sounds like the exterior ones are on metal.


This said, it was shoddy practice for a short while in the 60's to just
build the external soldiers direclty on top of the frame, there was a
housebuilder called calderbank & fairhurst who built several estates like
this, needless to say they went out of buisness.


To check if there is a lintel, get a screwdriver and poke it between frame
and brickwork and see what's there, my guess is metal.


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Phil L
RSRL Tipster Of The Year 2008