Why are the ground floor bricks like this? (Repointed?)

bbbuyer

BikingBud said:

That left window looks like it might be larger than original, hint being the limited span of the solider course.

Suggest kitchen window increased to let more light in perhaps? Supported by black drain pipe emerging from behind the wooden crate.

Yeah but I think that was already done before the current buyers.

bbbuyer

subjecttocontract said:

lincroft1710 said:

subjecttocontract said:

That brick pattern suggests solid walls to me. Might not be very good for insulation, I'd check what the EPC shows.

Virtually every pre 1920 house and quite a few  up to the 1940s will have solid brick walls

Doesn't that mean that they won't have a very good EPC rating without considerable additional interior work to add insulation to the walls. It sounds like extra energy costs to heat that kind of property. Are they cheaper as a result ?

EPC is D which is decent for the type of property.

There are no cavity wall properties in the area (or if they are it’s in 1/20 ration) so can’t really discuss prices

stuart45

bbbuyer said:

Is it repointing?

why are they white?

Is it something to be wary off (from buyer perspective)

It's generally been bodged up. For the bigger window they didn't even bother taking the arch out and rebuilding the brickwork over the top. They've stuck a few LBC commons over the lintel to fill in. The other window at the bottom has had some of the jamb cut away to fit the window in. Look how the arch meets the jamb. The top window had the brickwork cut away, and filled in with mortar.
The pointing is weather struck and cut, slightly different to weather struck. It's not a great job. It probably would have been better to use a flush joint with lime mortar and finished with the churn brush.

Grumpy_chap

bobster2 said:

What I'd be more interested in would be the window replacements. I can see a new concrete lintel on the left hand window - but it's an untidy job.

The soldier course above the right hand window looks a bit wonky.

Suspect the wall was painted white before the pointing was re-done.

Albermarle

subjecttocontract said:

lincroft1710 said:

subjecttocontract said:

That brick pattern suggests solid walls to me. Might not be very good for insulation, I'd check what the EPC shows.

Virtually every pre 1920 house and quite a few  up to the 1940s will have solid brick walls

Doesn't that mean that they won't have a very good EPC rating without considerable additional interior work to add insulation to the walls. It sounds like extra energy costs to heat that kind of property. Are they cheaper as a result ?

There are millions of houses in the UK with solid walls. In my area they seem to sell for more than newer properties, as many people prefer living in a Victorian/Edwardian house, especially if they have been sympathetically modernised, keeping some original characteristics.
Yes the energy usage can be an issue, but insulating the walls internally is going to have a long payback time, unless you do it at the same time as other work. External insulation is more expensive again, and of course would completely change the look of the property, which is often a big selling point for these older houses.

stuart45

Looking closely at the pointing, where some of it has dropped off, it looks like the joints weren't raked out properly. With this type of pointing especially, it tends to fall away quite quickly. Years ago I used to do quite a lot of this type of pointing, but nowadays it seems to have fallen out of favour. With older properties built in lime mortar, a flush joint is much more common.

BungalowBel

I have never lived in a house with cavity walls.  The bungalow we have now was built in 1930 and has solid walls.  We considered external insulation, but it would change the look of the bungalow and we don't want that.  Internal insulation will make the inside rooms even smaller than they are. 

We find we can heat it adequately anyway.  We have two logburners which we use when we don't want to use the GCH.

As you say, people like these old houses for how they look and don't want modern insulation stuck on them/
To me the pictures look like not very well done pointing, but I would not have thought it was anything to worry about.

stuart45

The theoretical U value of a solid 9 inch clay brick wall is 2.1. However, on site testing has shown that many perform much better than that, with some being around 1.4, which is better than a cavity wall of brick/cavity/brick which has the theoretical U value of 1.7. However many of the unfilled cavity walls tested had much higher U values, due to convection currents in the cavity.
So in many cases, a solid wall performs better.

bbbuyer

stuart45 said:

bbbuyer said:

Is it repointing?

why are they white?

Is it something to be wary off (from buyer perspective)

It's generally been bodged up. For the bigger window they didn't even bother taking the arch out and rebuilding the brickwork over the top. They've stuck a few LBC commons over the lintel to fill in. The other window at the bottom has had some of the jamb cut away to fit the window in. Look how the arch meets the jamb. The top window had the brickwork cut away, and filled in with mortar.
The pointing is weather struck and cut, slightly different to weather struck. It's not a great job. It probably would have been better to use a flush joint with lime mortar and finished with the churn brush.

Any potential problems with the way the windows were replaced (besides the aesthetics)?

I think the windows may have been replaced longer than current sellers (so more than 4 years).