Cracks under windows
 

Two houses I have looked at (to buy) have had cracks under 2 or more
windows, and also above the windows.

What does this indicate and is it possible to fix? and how much could
it cost to fix?

One house I have pictured here, I have drawn the cracks on the
picture.
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/5472/wall01awn5.jpg

Hopefully the image wil work - imageshack has not been very reliable
of late.

Cracks under windows
 

freepo wrote:
Two houses I have looked at (to buy) have had cracks under 2 or more
windows, and also above the windows.

What does this indicate and is it possible to fix? and how much could
it cost to fix?

One house I have pictured here, I have drawn the cracks on the
picture.
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/5472/wall01awn5.jpg

IMHO the diagonal cracks above the windows are strongly indicative of
there being inadequate or failed lintels above the windows, ie the area
within the red 'triangles' has dropped slightly. They look like new uPVC
windows, am I right? It's quite possible that the house was built with
no lintels over the original windows, which could have had meaty enough
timber frames to support the brickwork... then along comes a cheapskate
window replacement company and bangs in flimsy plastic windows, and
guess what happens....

David

Cracks under windows
 

On Apr 10, 3:55 pm, Lobster wrote:
freepo wrote:
Two houses I have looked at (to buy) have had cracks under 2 or more
windows, and also above the windows.

What does this indicate and is it possible to fix? and how much could
it cost to fix?

One house I have pictured here, I have drawn the cracks on the
picture.
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/5472/wall01awn5.jpg

IMHO the diagonal cracks above the windows are strongly indicative of
there being inadequate or failed lintels above the windows, ie the area
within the red 'triangles' has dropped slightly. They look like new uPVC
windows, am I right? It's quite possible that the house was built with
no lintels over the original windows, which could have had meaty enough
timber frames to support the brickwork... then along comes a cheapskate
window replacement company and bangs in flimsy plastic windows, and
guess what happens....

David

...or it's just that a couple of gorillas installed the windows,
damaging the lightweight brickwork arround the window. It's
impossible to find a window surround in my house where the plaster at
least hasn't cracked. I can't see the pics by the way as they're
blocked.

Cracks under windows
 

"freepo" wrote in message
oups.com...
Two houses I have looked at (to buy) have had cracks under 2 or more
windows, and also above the windows.

What does this indicate and is it possible to fix? and how much could
it cost to fix?

One house I have pictured here, I have drawn the cracks on the
picture.
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/5472/wall01awn5.jpg

Hopefully the image wil work - imageshack has not been very reliable
of late.

Try http://tinypic.com/ and a close up pic of the cracks?

Cracks under windows
 

SJP wrote:
"freepo" wrote in message
oups.com...
Two houses I have looked at (to buy) have had cracks under 2 or more
windows, and also above the windows.

What does this indicate and is it possible to fix? and how much could
it cost to fix?

One house I have pictured here, I have drawn the cracks on the
picture.
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/5472/wall01awn5.jpg

Hopefully the image wil work - imageshack has not been very reliable
of late.

Try http://tinypic.com/ and a close up pic of the cracks?

That's just the home page - you might need to give a bit more of a steer
than that! The imageshack pic works fine here though.

David

Cracks under windows
 

"Lobster" wrote in message
...
SJP wrote:
"freepo" wrote in message
oups.com...
Two houses I have looked at (to buy) have had cracks under 2 or more
windows, and also above the windows.

What does this indicate and is it possible to fix? and how much could
it cost to fix?

One house I have pictured here, I have drawn the cracks on the
picture.
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/5472/wall01awn5.jpg

Hopefully the image wil work - imageshack has not been very reliable
of late.

Try http://tinypic.com/ and a close up pic of the cracks?

That's just the home page - you might need to give a bit more of a steer
than that! The imageshack pic works fine here though.

David

I was just pointing out an alternative to imageshack if the original poster
is finding it unreliable

Cracks under windows
 

Ok, here is a tinypic for the same picture as the one in imageshack
http://i19.tinypic.com/2im3psn.jpg


The house has recently been "done up" to sell, so yes they are new
windows. They have "brick arch" lintels on the outside (probably
large timber lintel on the inside) it looks like the brick arch is
starting to give way.

So it would probably require new lintels to the outside replacing the
brick arches. Not a big job eh?

The other house, I don't have an actual pic of the house so I'll use
this pic of a house, In this house the windows are all old and the
house has been rendered, and the area in green is where the render has
been recently renewed, the red marks are where the cracks are. The
crack (on the left) now runs along the line of new rendering.

So again this is indicative of failing lintels?

Cracks under windows
 

I don't think I added the second link here it is for the second photo,
which is not of the actual house.

http://i14.tinypic.com/2h6etg7.jpg

Cracks under windows
 

freepo wrote:
I don't think I added the second link here it is for the second photo,
which is not of the actual house.

http://i14.tinypic.com/2h6etg7.jpg


Dunno, maybe: but I hasten to add I'm not an expert! but the red
triangular area in the other photo was very distinctive.

David

Cracks under windows
 

SJP wrote:
"Lobster" wrote in message
...
SJP wrote:
"freepo" wrote in message
oups.com...
Two houses I have looked at (to buy) have had cracks under 2 or more
windows, and also above the windows.

What does this indicate and is it possible to fix? and how much could
it cost to fix?

One house I have pictured here, I have drawn the cracks on the
picture.
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/5472/wall01awn5.jpg

Hopefully the image wil work - imageshack has not been very reliable
of late.

Try http://tinypic.com/ and a close up pic of the cracks?
That's just the home page - you might need to give a bit more of a steer
than that! The imageshack pic works fine here though.

David

I was just pointing out an alternative to imageshack if the original poster
is finding it unreliable

Oh sorry I thought you were the OP posting a new photo of his cracks!
David

Cracks under windows
 

On 10 Apr 2007 11:08:24 -0700, "freepo" wrote:

Ok, here is a tinypic for the same picture as the one in imageshack
http://i19.tinypic.com/2im3psn.jpg


The house has recently been "done up" to sell, so yes they are new
windows. They have "brick arch" lintels on the outside (probably
large timber lintel on the inside) it looks like the brick arch is
starting to give way.

So it would probably require new lintels to the outside replacing the
brick arches. Not a big job eh?

or replace the windows, they look like the cheapest of the cheap
anyway.


The other house, I don't have an actual pic of the house so I'll use
this pic of a house, In this house the windows are all old and the
house has been rendered, and the area in green is where the render has
been recently renewed, the red marks are where the cracks are. The
crack (on the left) now runs along the line of new rendering.

So again this is indicative of failing lintels?

Cracks under windows
 

In article .com,
"freepo" writes:
The house has recently been "done up" to sell, so yes they are new
windows. They have "brick arch" lintels on the outside (probably
large timber lintel on the inside) it looks like the brick arch is
starting to give way.

So it would probably require new lintels to the outside replacing the
brick arches. Not a big job eh?

Brick arches often slip a bit, and providing they're stable
now, may need nothing doing at all other than repointing any
cracks and keeping an eye out for any more movement.
There's a substantial amount of wall to the sides of all the
arches, so it's unlikely the arches are going to spread
significantly. (It would be much more of a potential problem
if the arches were near corners.)

However, you should draw this to your surveyor's attention
for his comments.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Cracks under windows
 

Thanks all, the second one actually was more like this
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=29oizhs

With the cracks leading to the centre of the tops of the windows.