Cracks in External Brick work

Viki2410

 Hi All,

Hope everyone is safe and well. We’ve been in our Persimmon (yes I know) new build for almost 10 months now. We’ve had plenty of issues but the newest one is a very long crack that has appeared above our french doors in the kitchen all the way up to the bedroom window above it. The crack actually goes through the brick and mortar and is in a reasonably straight line. I’ve checked on the inside wall and there are no cracks as of yet. I’ve asked Persimmon to get someone out to look at this ASAP as I’m very worried. My issue is that I do not know what could have possibly caused this and I do not understand enough about the issue to make sure I am not being fobbed off. I have found you have to understand the issues they come to fix otherwise they do not complete the job properly...

My question is what could have caused this? What do I need to insist on Persimmon looking at/doing to get to the root of the problem, ie not just replacing the bricks. 

Many thanks in advance for your help. 

Thanks
Viki

ACG

No idea on the answer but this looks fairly similar - https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/cracked-bricks.470160/

Viki2410

ACG said:

No idea on the answer but this looks fairly similar - https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/cracked-bricks.470160/

Thank you ACG. I saw that when I was frantically googling last night, I just wasn’t sure with that being an older house and ours being newer if the same applied. Just don’t want to be fobbed off, which they tend to do! Thank you. 

ACG

If you think you are being fobbed off, you will probably need to pay for a specialist report by a qualified surveyor. I imagine they will probably try and play it down, but it is not normal to have cracked bricks so you could do with getting it resolved really. 

Viki2410

ACG said:

If you think you are being fobbed off, you will probably need to pay for a specialist report by a qualified surveyor. I imagine they will probably try and play it down, but it is not normal to have cracked bricks so you could do with getting it resolved really. 

Thank you. I think I’m going to get a second opinion on from a surveyor before they do any work if I can. I’ve asked Persimmon to get someone round this week to look at it. They are still building on site so will have people here I imagine. I know lockdown causes problems but I would hope this one might be classed as an emergency rather than cosmetic. Thank you for your help. 

Mickygg

I would go for a surveyor to take a look. Persimmon have an interest to tell you its nothing, some houses do this etc.to fob you off. 

Viki2410

Mickygg said:

I would go for a surveyor to take a look. Persimmon have an interest to tell you its nothing, some houses do this etc.to fob you off. 

Thanks Mickygg. I have had a local surveyour out this morning (luckily he lives in our village) who has confirmed it is a thermal crack. He said that they need to remove the bricks and repoint it but also check that it has not caused any damage behind the bricks with the ties, but that Persimmon will suggest leaving it for 6 months plus to see what happens with it. He said not to accept that as if it gets worse it can then cause further problems.

Thanks for your help both! Will wait for Persimmon now.