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Considering buying a house with no lintels! Help!
Motherduck
Posts: 3 Newbie
I hope someone can advise...
It has come to light that a three bed semi we are thinking of buying, built in the early 1980s, has no lintels at all fitted above any of the upvc windows. We have noticed that four windows are 'blown'... Could this be related and what should we do. The vendor will not budge on the price to accommodate any subsequent costs for putting this right going forward....
Help
It has come to light that a three bed semi we are thinking of buying, built in the early 1980s, has no lintels at all fitted above any of the upvc windows. We have noticed that four windows are 'blown'... Could this be related and what should we do. The vendor will not budge on the price to accommodate any subsequent costs for putting this right going forward....
Help
0
Comments
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No idea.... but I do know that some windows are designed to be structural elements in their own right .... so maybe original structural windows were replaced with the cheapest DG available, without anybody realising the originals were structural.0
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Why do you think there are no lintels?
It is very rare not to have a lintel above a window and virtually impossible for a house built since 1970's unless it is a cowboy job without Building Regulations approval.0 -
It probably has "Catnic" lintels which can't be seen as they sit along the top of the brick leafs and go into the cavity.0
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the "blown windows" have nothing to do with the house not having lintels and this will not be an issue unless you replace all window and door frames or the brickwork around the windows/doors drops and cracks in the mortar.
it is not unusual for houses built without lintels in 70s and 80s but in my case,when i had all my windows and doors replaced the only issue was above front door where i had a lintel put in and all the brickwork replaced in a trianguler shape as it had dropped and cracked in the mortar.0 -
Why do you think there are no lintels?
It is very rare not to have a lintel above a window and virtually impossible for a house built since 1970's unless it is a cowboy job without Building Regulations approval.
Our vendor themselves have told us there are no lintels and that all the houses in the road were built without them.....0 -
Motherduck wrote: »Our vendor themselves have told us there are no lintels and that all the houses in the road were built without them.....
But how do they know?Eat vegetables and fear no creditors, rather than eat duck and hide.0 -
But how do they know?
The story is from them themselves that they tried to sell it several years ago and the then potential buyer had a structural survey done which showed this up and their building society said that they could not borrow against the property until it was remedied.....
Does this one sound dead in the water? They refused to drop the price at the time and are doing so again for us. The house was valued without that knowledge and we offered full asking price....0 -
Quite normal around that time , my house has no external outer skin lintels either,you will have cast concrete on the inner skin but the outer skin would of used the old wooden window frame for the support .If you want to install them you will only need the ground floor done0
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