Wonky Windows - my house has subsidence

besonders1

I live in a mid Victorian terrace and am having the windows replaced. The surveyor came round to measure up the windows and the front two windows are found to be out of shape, the decorative arched bricks covering the lintel have dropped on one side and the concrete sills/boxes are sloping slightly. There are no huge typical cracks in the brickwork or obvious signs inside the house, all ceilings, floors and walls are intact. The surveyor thinks that the movement has taken place in the 1970s are the windows have been replaced and "engineered" to take the shape of the wonky brickwork. He said he can still fit the windows but put in plastic filler/strip to keep the window straight. Is it possible just to get a builder to replace the lintels above the windows and the concrete sills to "straighten" rather than inform the insurance company as I have heard that its impossible to get insurance or even sell a house that has been underpinned or whatever they do about subsidence if its possible to cure it?

macman

Almost all Victorian houses suffer some movement, simply because of a combination of age, central heating, and the fact that the footings in that era were totally inadequate by modern standards.
The important factor is whether the movement is recent. If your surveyor is confident that it's more than 30 years old, I wouldn't worry about it.

wallbash

macman summed it up well .
My Victorian house had very little in the way of foundations, but stood ( is standing ) to this day . Everything just moved/flexed and caused a few cracks... no bother.
Than I built a 2 storey extension, standard 3 foot foundation , so I could see :rolleyes: the
absence of any original work.

Different mortar helped .

The important factor is whether the movement is recent. If your surveyor is confident that it's more than 30 years old, I wouldn't worry about it.

Nor should you.

Doozergirl

Why do you think having wonky windows means you have subsidence?

You need to backtrack here. All houses move and you'd be suprised to find truly 'square' or plumb walls and windows in any older house. It's common to use fill pieces; it's not a major issue in itself.

Windows can be wonky for any reason. We fixed a house where the lintels downstairs had been removed so the upstairs windows were wonky where the sills were sinking. The house wasn't subsiding, it had just suffered the experience of cowboy window fitters! Even that's probably not a good scenario to give you but even that didn't mean subsidence and it was a lot cheaper to fix than subsidence. Houses move, it's normal. Wonky windows mean little by itself; especially without cracking.

ormus

a huge amount of victorian terraced houses were jerry/gerry built. perfectly square openings were therefore rare.
if any subsidence has taken place you would expect some serious cracking somewhere.
all houses move to a greater or lesser extent. hence small cracks everywhere.

besonders1

thanks for that, I can't see any major crack inside or outside the house and it is supported by the 2 houses either side so its unlikely to fall down! I'll just get a builder in to straighten the window sills and lintels, and render over the brickwork.

27col

Many people think that Victorian houses were well built. But they were just as "jerry" built as any others. Ask any one who has done any work in one. They were thrown up by speculative builders as fast as they could be. The foundations were most likely very sub- standard, especially by today's requirements and expectations. The lintels were wood, if they existed at all, the mortar was usually lime based.( Not necessarily a bad thing). The roofs were slated. Hence the need to reinforce when fitting the much heavier modern concrete roof tiles. The cavities,(if they had them) were not closed adjacent to the window and door openings, as in modern houses.They were made attractive inside by the use of plaster mouldings and mass produced cast iron adornments. If you have a Victorian house that has not settled a bit, then you are quite lucky I would think. As has been stated, the most likely place for movement is probably at the windows, where there were very light timber lintels and sometimes, no lintel at all. Especially if it was a small window.