Buying my first house -1 issue with lintel

dbtor

Buying my first house, nice little 3 bed semi which we both love.

I had a home buyers report done, found a few little issues which we are not worried about, but it did say "The concrete lintel over the rear patio door is too short. Further investigation is needed. Condition rating 2."

Here are some pictures:



Small gap at the left, close up here:



There's also a crack above it:


My uncle is a civil engineer and said "If the window still opens and closes without binding then nothing has moved and is unlikely to move in the next few years."

The home buyers report says "As far as can be seen from this single inspection the movement seems to be non progressive."

Is this safe? Does it need fixing immediately?

The surveyor said it was "Condition rating 2.", which he describes as "Defects that need repairing or replacing but are not considered to be either serious or urgent. The property must be maintained in the normal way."

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

CLAPTON

The purpose of a lintel is to span the window space and support the weight of the bricks and roof above.

It should overlap at least six inches or so BOTH sides of the window.

Clearly it doesnot and the full weight is resting on the UPVC windows.

without knowing the construction of the upvc windows then it's impossible to say but I'm amazed a surveyor would say it doesn't matter.

G_M

As above.

The full weight of everything above is being supported by the windows.

My guess is that old wooden windows were replaced at some time and the upvc installers did a cowboy job - just banged in the new windows without worrying about the structure (which would have pushed up the installation costs and involved a builder as well as window installer)

How long have the windows been there? I agree that if they've been there some years without the weight causing movement, difficulty opening windows etc, then there might be no problem (just re-point to fill the gap with cement).

If they are more recent, any movement/distortion could be a slow process which might become gradually apparent.

note: is there building regs/FENSA sign-off for the windows?

Mojisola

CLAPTON wrote: »

The purpose of a lintel is to span the window space and support the weight of the bricks and roof above.

It should overlap at least six inches or so BOTH sides of the window.

Clearly it doesnot and the full weight is resting on the UPVC windows.

without knowing the construction of the upvc windows then it's impossible to say but I'm amazed a surveyor would say it doesn't matter.

Agree with all this. Those windows are holding up the walls above them - the lintel isn't doing anything!

BornAtTheRightTime

Honest opinion is that looks very dangerous. There is a triangle of bricks that has already detached and is supported by the doorframe. If you open the door and the frame collapses you'll have a few hundred kilos of bricks on your head.

It is rectifiable - for a couple of thousands maybe - but 2 questions arise:
1) what is going on under the plaster on the inside? If the wall is coming down it could bring down the floor above it too.
2) if some visible work is this shoddy, what shoddy work has been done that you cannot see?


PS. It looks like a lintel normally used for internal purposes...

SailorSam

You can see the crack on the right hand side coming down course by course, it looks as if worsening. If you get Acrows in then you could hold the wall while you took the door away and fitted a new lintel. But with it being a conservatory there probably isn't a sound place for the Acrow.
The surveyor should have suggested an answer.

wabbitpoo

My uncle is a civil engineer and said "If the window still opens and closes without binding then nothing has moved and is unlikely to move in the next few years.


Do tell us which public structures your uncle works on....so we can avoid them. No offence, but that is plain wrong. Get it looked at pronto by a reputable builder (if you can find one) and get a quote for correcting it. Then offer less to cover it. Or walk away, as there may be other issue in the house you, your surveyor and your uncle may not have seen.

Good luck

SailorSam

I'm not sure how these things work but looking at the photo you may be put 2 or 3 of them up as a temporary things just above your door/window while you removed that bottom row of bricks, looks like you could even leave the door in place. Put in a new lintel and make good.
I think i'd go to a tool hire firm and ask if they have anything that could do the job.

http://www.jewson.co.uk/tool-hire/site-equipment/props/products/0175/strong-boy-support-attachment/

If you're only just buying, the cost of all this work should be negotiable on the house.

eddddy

You can get steel reinforced upvc window frames which have a structural capability - i.e. they are designed to support the weight of the wall above them.

They are normally used to replace old heavy wooden windows which already provide structural support - although, in this case, it looks like the window installers may have used one because there wasn't room to easily get a wider lintel in.

But as there is cracking, it seems something was done wrongly.

If the frame does have a sufficient structural capability, it could just be that the (incompetent) installers left a small structural gap above the frame, and so the brickwork above dropped. In this case relatively minor repairs might be required.

It's certainly worth investigating to find out more.

Ulfar

Sorry but I wouldn't touch it, why land yourself with the hassle.

As others have said if this has been bodged, then what else has. To me it looks like they have widened the patio doors to include windows but not had the lintel done.

How did this pass Fensa or building regs.

wabbitpoo

Fitters were maybe Fensa reg'd......or perhaps no regs needed/sought.