Bay window cracks and other cracks

m0bov

Any cracks on the outside?

Sa4a

m0bov said:

Any cracks on the outside?

Not that we could see

Sa4a

Phil4432 said:

Whats the guttering like at the front of the bay window?  Is rainwater stagnating at the base of the house?

Didn't notice any rainwater stagnating at the base of the house. The gutting looked okay, nothing I noticed. But might have missed something 

Sa4a

m0t said:

We've had very similar cracks in the bay window in our bedroom and had a structural engineer look at it, he diagnosed seasonal movement.

The bay structure is built of timber and between the studs they mortared in brick then tile hung the outside. The timber bay is held to the brick house walls using big nails driven through the studs in to wooden blocks that were mortared in to the brickwork. It allows everything to move as it heats up and with moisture changes in the air and causes the cracking.

The rear one is concerning but could be caused by lintel failure, either from moisture damage (lintel is probably timber) or by removing the wood framed windows to replace with upvc as they will have been providing some support (one of our downstairs windows failed for this reason and looked very similar to your photo). If you are able to get a photo of the outside that might help diagnose the issue.

If you like the house you need to pay for a structural report and have funds available for some immediate remediation. I recently paid £500 to have two concrete lintels installed in our house (you will need two per window) and plastered in. 

Thanks this is very helpful.