What first windows or wall?

greenface2

Bay jacks or full supporting poles required . Pay good money for something you know when you really need new windows . order the windows through a decent company . tell them the bay appears to have dropped and should be able to jack level and use bay supports between the frames . its only narrow so they (I ) may use a coupler . Its thinner than a baypole but strong   

ThisIsWeird

How can the join between the brick bow and the house wall be made cosmetically good again? I'm guessing there's quite a large gap at the top under that messy mortar.

stuart45

How To - Brick Repairs - YouTube
There are various ways of a repair. This method is one type. Cutting out and relaying some bricks is another.

Snow_Phoenix

Happy New Year everyone and thank you all for your replies. 

Apologised for the delay in replying to you all. We have been unable to follow @FreeBear suggestion of getting up the floor boards to see what is supporting the bay until today. Below are the photos. We are unable to see any lintel? and could just see these parallel to the bay the following beams. 

As we are unable to comment about the inside being replastered and from previous pictures can see there is no sign of any cracks inside I thought the exposed wall under the floor boards was interesting as did not show any cracks at all. Just for note we are one of 31 houses along this street with this bay construction, though most have had an external wall coating out on them. 

Hopefully the pictures below help to give more insight into what is going on and where to go next. 

Snow_Phoenix

Sorry missed the other side pictures

stuart45

You won't see any support for the brickwork between the ceiling and floor, as it would be lower down over the frame.
Are the joists sitting on hangers?
Are the bricks snapped headers?

greenface2

that all looks normal for under the floor . You can only tell if you strip the downstairs head away and see whats there . OR TAKE THE WINDOWS OUT ( downstairs first ) and replace with new once you've looked . 

Snow_Phoenix

Update since last post. 

I thought it was easier to continue with the previous thread rather than start a new one. 

We have had a structural engineer out who has advised we need to implement two solutions to remedy the situation. 

1. Install a steel lintel about the ground floor bay window as there is no evidence of one being present and the weight of the upper bay is loading onto the the ground floor window which is causing the cracks in the wall at the side of the bay further up. It was suggested the lintel was fitted at the point we change the windows. 

2. Install a helifix system to tie the bay wall to the main house wall as presently the are not attached to one another. 

The structural engineer has suggested it does not matter which order we do the work in but put the implementing the steel lintel as a higher priority than the helifix system. 

So we have been trying to find someone who can replace all the windows and also be able to install the lintel but are struggling to find someone who we feel is competent and we feel confident with doing such a large piece of work. 

We have so far approached 2 local firms and 2 national firms to get quote. One of the local firms does building work in-house but when it came to doing the quote they only provided a price for the windows and followed it with a sentence along the lines of it is quite invasive work and are we sure we understand what is fully involved as presently they did not feel they could take it on to then follow up with another team member emailing to say if we could get further information from the structural engineer about the calculation for the lintel they would consider it. We have since declined to go further with them as there is just a few red flags, including when they came around to give the quote suggesting they would replace the upper bay window before doing anything with the lower bay and lintel! which taking @greenface2 advice would not be advisable. When this was pointed out they agreed we were right and they were wrong. We have had some other work done through this company as well and they have not acknowledged some issues we have raised with them when the work was carried out so did not also feel putting such a large project in there hands was a good idea. We were also not sure if their quote was lower as they had not specified there was any bay poles in the bay windows the way the other two companies had. 

The other local company has a 3rd party contractor they employ of their construction work and is still waiting to get back to us with a price for this. Their quote for windows was higher than the other company and we are not sure how we feel about them using a 3rd party contractor as have read horror stories of issues occurring and not having any formal way of following them up/contractor demanding money on site in cash before will start work. 

Of the two national companies, one declined to even quote us as they would not be able to do the building works, I think the rep was with us for 5 minute before leaving even though we had asked if they would be able to do it 3-4 times before the appointment as did not want to waste their time. 

The second national company has gives us a quote but it is the highest of the lot, they have their own structural engineer who would do the calculation but can see they have lots of negative reviews. 

We are just not sure where to find someone who we can feel confident in doing the work properly. Are you able to ask for examples of this sort of work they have done in the past. Would it be better to get a separate building company to do the lintel work? but then you have the issue of trying to co-ordinate the two?

We now understand at lot of the wall between the ground floor and 1st floor bay window would need to be removed to fit the lintel so it would not make sense to instal the helifix to then just remove it as part of the above works, but our structural engineer did not acknowledge this. 

stuart45

You might want to look at some local building firms, rather than window companies. All the firms I've worked for could handle a job like that.

FreeBear

Agreed. Local building companies for the structural work every time, and do it before the windows are fitted. I'd also look at insulating those walls from the inside - That bit, do after the windows have been fitted as there is often "making good" to plasterwork needed after the event.

If helibars are being installed from the inside, the plaster is going to be trashed anyway, so taking it all off to insulate isn't going to be a major issue. Yes, it adds to the cost and mess, but you do end up with a nice smooth wall that remains warm in the winter.