Bay Window Subsidence

figgyroo

ormus wrote: »

yes i noticed that. you have three different materials there.
plaster, plastic and wood. all moving at varying rates.

that makes sense when you think about it! i really am clueless when it comes to this sort of thing!

AdmiralX

figgyroo wrote: »

When I bought my 1930s house I was made aware that the bay window had been underpinned several years earlier. When my builders were installing the new windows they dug down and told me that the bay had not been underpinned, so they said they had poured concrete in to support it. The floors into the bay were really out so they jacked these up as much as possible. All cracks were made good, new sills fitted and everything redecorated.

This was about 5 years ago; cracks have now started to appear around the bay for example there are cracks between the windowsill and the wall as though the sill is moving away from the wall. There are also cracks down the side of the windows where they meet the wall and also cracks in the sill itself (it is a curved bay so the sills are made up of several separate pieces of wood). All crack as fairly narrow.

My question is, is this normal settlement or should I be worried i.e. does it suggest the bay window is subsiding again?

Any advice greatfully received as I am clueless about this sort of thing. Thanks.

You do not know; cracks may be caused by the deflection of some beams that tie the building around or from some other thing.
You might wish to call a surveyor to come and see and give you a verbal report which costs cheap. You cannot decide and for peace in mind it is not a lot of money. It is cheaper if you ask your insurance to check for subsidence.

vaio

AdmiralX wrote: »

.....It is cheaper if you ask your insurance to check for subsidence.

no, no, a million times no.

Mention subsidence to an insurance company and you'll likely find the house is blighted until the end of time.

jhe

AdmiralX wrote: »

It is cheaper if you ask your insurance to check for subsidence.[/QUOTE
believe me i made the mistake years ago of involving insurers over subsidence.
my insurance premiums have been sky high ever since,other insurers dont want to know when subsidence is mentioned, plus if i wanted to sell my house i expect the value to be affected.

leveller2911

AdmiralX wrote: »

You do not know; cracks may be caused by the deflection of some beams that tie the building around or from some other thing.
You might wish to call a surveyor to come and see and give you a verbal report which costs cheap. You cannot decide and for peace in mind it is not a lot of money. It is cheaper if you ask your insurance to check for subsidence.

If there was any "deflection of some beams" the first thing the OP would notice is that none of the opening sashes would open, pretty obvious stuff... Anyone with experience of working on older properties would come to the same conclusion that posters did on here and that is different materials expand and conract at different rates and thet is why there are crack between different materials..

If the OP had mentioned cracked brickwork joints and also cracked bricks then I would say it needed more investigation.............

The OP didn't so its a mixture of common sense and experience saying the cracks are purely cosmetic.................Stop being so dramatic ......;)

oz0707

Without a thorough read of all the replies here I'll say that i've replaced a lot of bays, and sashes within. I think about 90% are lower at the house end. I bet over 600mm most have about a 15mm fall back towards the house