Soldier line of bricks above door & window issue

Mutton_Geoff

Have you tried opening and closing those windows. As others have said, it's the lack of a catnic that is the problem. I certainly wouldn't want a "angle iron" put in there, you need to drain water from the inner cavity.

AmmDram

Swasterix said:

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. 

Yes, that’s what I’m worried about longer term. 

AmmDram

Mutton_Geoff said:

Have you tried opening and closing those windows. As others have said, it's the lack of a catnic that is the problem. I certainly wouldn't want a "angle iron" put in there, you need to drain water from the inner cavity.

It’s not my house, it’s one we are considering purchasing so I was only there for a short time and didn’t notice this issue until we were outside at the end of our viewing. 

Swasterix

AmmDram said:

Swasterix said:

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. 

Yes, that’s what I’m worried about longer term. 

With everything that’s been said, had I noticed it early on it wouldn’t have been an issue really. Took the lads a day and a half to do the job. They didn’t even have to come in the house to complete the job. Caused no damage inside the house and now it’s done, it’s done. Cost was/is negligible in the grand scheme of buying/updating/renovating a house. Put in the same position again it really wouldn’t put me off. 

stuart45

What often happens when there is a crack in the bed joint over the soldiers is that moisture enters and freezes in the winter, pushing the bricks down further.

TELLIT01

It's an unfortunately very common problem.  As said previously in this thread, timber windows can support the weight of the brickwork above but plastic windows can't.  On the estate where my mother lived some of the houses had very wide windows, 8 feet wide or more, and the brickwork above plastic windows had a severe bow in it, along with associated cracks in the brickwork.