Soldier line of bricks above door & window issue

AmmDram

Hi, we are looking at buying a house which we viewed recently but I noticed an issue with the pointing around the soldier line of bricks above two windows and a door.  It is crumbling/cracked but no other areas seem to be affected and the pvc doesn’t look to be bowing. They are all in the same side of the house. Just wondered if anyone on here has dealt with similar? 

Am wondering if it can be remedied from outside, or if we would need to remove plaster and fix internally? This is a link to some photos of the brickwork in question:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/187874100@N03/albums/72157717922464498

I’m trying to assess if it’s a big job and if it will be expensive to remedy before we offer on the house. Thanks for your help, any advice much appreciated.

stuart45

It looks like the timber frames were replaced with plastic ones and there are no lintels on the outer skin of brickwork. 
Timber frames could take the weight but plastic not so well. Looks like the brickwork has dropped slightly. In time can jam the frames or crack the glass. 
Would be worth getting a rough estimate for lintels.

AmmDram

Thanks. Do you happen to know which type of traders person I would need to fit lintels? Is it a builder? Also, do you know if adding lintels can solely be done externally, or if it requires disturbing the decoration inside please? Thanks for replying. 

stuart45

It's a bricklayers job. It can be done externally. The internal one on a house of that age would probably be a concrete one and left alone. An L10 lintel is often used for the outer skin, although trays should also be put in if required.
Cost depends on how many need doing. Some people on here have had the work done.

EssexExile

On ours they basically took the soldier course out, put in an angle iron to support it and replaced the soldier course. The inside won't be affected at all. I can't say how much it cost as it was part of a bigger job replacing all our windows, although they had told us before hand that if it needed doing it wouldn't add anything to bill.

AmmDram

Thank you so much to you both, I will look into quotes. Just after a rough idea. 

Homer_home

As well as looking to see if the soldier course is supported you might want to see if the sealant for the doors and windows is adequate from your pics doesn't seem to be , if anything whoever fitted those doors and windows has done a bit of a cowboy job 

AmmDram

Homer_home said:

As well as looking to see if the soldier course is supported you might want to see if the sealant for the doors and windows is adequate from your pics doesn't seem to be , if anything whoever fitted those doors and windows has done a bit of a cowboy job 

Thanks. I didn’t notice in person, it was all a bit rushed but it does look a bit shoddy on the photo. Didn’t seem to be any water ingress on the inside but I would certainly want to get at least that window re sealed on the outside. 

Swasterix

I had this done last year. 3x windows on the back of the house needed doing. I ended up paying only £700 which I wouldn’t normally do, as it seems too cheap, but I think I just got lucky with timing. The guy who did it was a trusted, reputable local builder. He squeezed me in between bigger jobs and think he had one eye on some larger future works we are hoping to do. 

The other 2 quotes I got were between ~ £1500 and £2500 which are probably more realistic. 

Since it was only the outside brick course that needed sorting there was no/very little damage inside. 

Swasterix

AmmDram said:

Homer_home said:

As well as looking to see if the soldier course is supported you might want to see if the sealant for the doors and windows is adequate from your pics doesn't seem to be , if anything whoever fitted those doors and windows has done a bit of a cowboy job 

Thanks. I didn’t notice in person, it was all a bit rushed but it does look a bit shoddy on the photo. Didn’t seem to be any water ingress on the inside but I would certainly want to get at least that window re sealed on the outside. 

Ps. Unfortunately I didn’t notice this when I originally bought the house in 2019. There were no signs of water ingress in ours either. However, when storm Denis hit the other year the constant stream of wind and rain battering the back of the house drove the rain water into the cavity through the cracks. It was like a waterfall coming over the back bedroom window. Totally destroyed the plaster in the window reveal. 

Longer term, as had been mentioned, the bricks will continue to drop away and could result in your window frames deflecting and potentially double glazed units failing. 

AmmDram

Swasterix said:

I had this done last year. 3x windows on the back of the house needed doing. I ended up paying only £700 which I wouldn’t normally do, as it seems too cheap, but I think I just got lucky with timing. The guy who did it was a trusted, reputable local builder. He squeezed me in between bigger jobs and think he had one eye on some larger future works we are hoping to do. 

The other 2 quotes I got were between ~ £1500 and £2500 which are probably more realistic. 

Since it was only the outside brick course that needed sorting there was no/very little damage inside. 

Wow, it seems to vary so much. Thanks.