No lintels above windows

Swasterix

Good afternoon all! Hoping to get some advice from those in the know. Apologies for the length!!

Moved into our house around 4 months ago. Last weekend when Storm Dennis paid us a visit, we had a bit of an issue with water streaming in the top of window frames on the southern aspect of our house. On closer inspection it appears that there are no lintels on the exterior brickwork (there are timber lintels on the interior block work). The previous owner had replaced timber framed windows with UPVC at some point in the 90s and there are now visible cracks in the brickwork above said windows. Add to this, it appears that the DPM above the windows is failing/poorly installed. 

My guess would be that the rain has been driven through the cracks in the brickwork, into the cavity, through the “damp proofing” and into the bedroom/bathroom and kitchen. Assuming this is a reasonable assessment, my questions are;

1. Roughly how much should I expect to pay to have lintels/cavity trays installed above 3 windows? I’m based in the North East
2. What would be involved in the process of doing this?
3. We had a RICS homebuyer report done before we bought the house, is there any comeback on the surveyor? He did mention that the sealant on the windows requires attention, but made no reference to the cracks in the brickwork/lack of lintels. It’s pretty obvious when you look closely, but then I didn’t notice it either. 

Thanks in advance for any help!

TLDR- no lintels above windows- how much to install?

dogshome

Seems that this is a Cavity Walled house, where only the inner blockwork has a lintel, and is fixed to the outer wall with horizontal wire ties

In the build process, the original window frames were fitted as the outer & inner faces were part built, and then with those in place the wall continued up with the bricks above the doors and windows actually resting on the Window & Door frames.

Common enough, but great care must be taken when re-fitting windows and doors so that the bricks above are not disturbed and left supported - At a guess I suspect the Upvc window fitters found the windows short on height and elected to fill the gap with mastic, instead of useing packing underneath with a cement fillet cover

 

TELLIT01

Upvc windows don't have the strength that timber windows do, so it's not simply a case of using packing.  That may be OK with smaller windows but not with large ones.  On a road near where my mother lived, with houses built in the '70s you could see a distinct sag in the brickwork over large Upvc windows.

stuart45

Swasterix said:TLDR- no lintels above windows- how much to install?

Probably a couple of grand. Depends on the size of windows and how good the facework needs to look after.
Usually have to prop the brickwork and remove some brickwork, before installing lintels etc and rebuild. 
Get plenty of quotes.

adonis

stuart45 said:

Swasterix said:TLDR- no lintels above windows- how much to install?

Probably a couple of grand. Depends on the size of windows and how good the facework needs to look after.
Usually have to prop the brickwork and remove some brickwork, before installing lintels etc and rebuild. 
Get plenty of quotes.

two grand,seriously , that is what I would expect from the big players, anglian etc

Swasterix

stuart45 said:

Swasterix said:TLDR- no lintels above windows- how much to install?

Probably a couple of grand. Depends on the size of windows and how good the facework needs to look after.
Usually have to prop the brickwork and remove some brickwork, before installing lintels etc and rebuild. 
Get plenty of quotes.

Thanks for the replies so far, kinda what I was suspecting. House was built in 1962. Now that I’ve noticed it, it’s noticeable, if you see what I mean?

What do people think of my chances of getting on to the surveyor? Hiding to nothing?

Knew the windows would need replacing at some point in the future, so guess it’s not too much more in the grand scheme of things. But could have done without it at the moment!

The joys of home ownership, eh!?

stuart45

What do people think of my chances of getting on to the surveyor? Hiding to nothing?

You could try. The lady I'm doing some work for at the moment got 10 grand from her surveyor, although she wanted 40.
She did have to agree to not telling anyone the name of the surveyor.

FreeBear

TELLIT01 said: Upvc windows don't have the strength that timber windows do, so it's not simply a case of using packing.  That may be OK with smaller windows but not with large ones.  On a road near where my mother lived, with houses built in the '70s you could see a distinct sag in the brickwork over large Upvc windows.

A wander around my neighbourhood will reveal quite a few 1930s properties that have had uPVC windows fitted over the last 20 or so years. Most of them are showing cracks above the windows & doors where the brickwork is slowly collapsing.

The problem is widespread and well known within the industry - FENSA have even issued a briefing note advising that the presence of adequate support is checked during the initial survey and a lintel fitted if required. This note came out in 2013 as I recall. Too late for the OP I'm afraid.

As to cost - I was quoted £1K for a lintel on the outer leaf over a window that I had replaced last year. This was based on three courses of bricks being removed, a steel inserted, and the bricks cemented back in place. As it turned out, there was enough wriggle room to get the steel installed once the old frame was removed. Total cost was just £300.

Note for the OP - There is no DPC above the window. You'll find a DPC just above ground level to stop damp traveling up the wall from wet soil around the house. You may also find a strip of felt between the inner & outer leaf around the door & window reveals if the builders used bricks to close the cavity.

Swasterix

FreeBear said

Note for the OP - There is no DPC above the window. You'll find a DPC just above ground level to stop damp traveling up the wall from wet soil around the house. You may also find a strip of felt between the inner & outer leaf around the door & window reveals if the builders used bricks to close the cavity.

Ah, my mistake! I’d assumed that the purpose of the felt was to prevent water that had penetrated the outer brickwork from coming in through the top of the window reveal (as was happening in my case), hence DPM. It appears to be attached to the inner block work and sits on top of the window frame (in most places) but is in a rather poor state!

Anyways, seems I’m looking at anything between £300-£2k, plus replacement windows while I’m at it. Time to make some phone calls on Monday!

Thanks again!

FreeBear

Swasterix said: Ah, my mistake! I’d assumed that the purpose of the felt was to prevent water that had penetrated the outer brickwork from coming in through the top of the window reveal (as was happening in my case), hence DPM. It appears to be attached to the inner block work and sits on top of the window frame (in most places) but is in a rather poor state!

Sounds like you might have a bit of felt whacked in there during construction where a drip tray would be fitted today. Retrofitting a lintel+drip tray could end up being quite expensive as well as disruptive.

As you say, the joys of owning a house...

stuart45

Swasterix said:

FreeBear said

Note for the OP - There is no DPC above the window. You'll find a DPC just above ground level to stop damp traveling up the wall from wet soil around the house. You may also find a strip of felt between the inner & outer leaf around the door & window reveals if the builders used bricks to close the cavity.

Ah, my mistake! I’d assumed that the purpose of the felt was to prevent water that had penetrated the outer brickwork from coming in through the top of the window reveal (as was happening in my case), hence DPM. It appears to be attached to the inner block work and sits on top of the window frame 

It is to prevent what you said. Sometimes lead was used, but we normally used this https://www.builderdepot.co.uk/450mm-iko-hyload-original-dpc-damp-proof-course-20m?msclkid=37f9200b1ad71337a0b67e5a85cf6163&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=New Shopping: All Products&utm_term=4574861728082046&utm_content=All products by brand
However since Catnic lintels became popular the tray wasn't normally required as they had their own.