Repair of bay window

Hi all

I was wondering if anyone was familiar with the type of bay window construction in the picture attached. A chunk of what would seems to be render has fallen off from below the guttering and I need to sort it.

It’s my mum’s house and she has got a quote for £500 to fix it but it seems to be a bit steep to me. The guy who quoted used terms like, "rodded" and "cast of concrete" so not sure what that meant?

I’m not a builder but I would have thought you could make a cost effective (less than £500) but functional repair by doing the following:

- Remove the guttering (for access)

- Remove the old plaster rendering at this level across the whole width of the bay

- Fit plasterboard or expanded metal mesh (cut to size), to the existing wooden lathing (and anchor it via more solid available members with perhaps wire, screw or nails etc).

- Then re-render/build up with the appropriate product and re-peppledash or paint it

- Replace the existing gutter with the correct fall, ensuring that the sections where it seems to have leaked (causing the problem) are water tight by an appropriate method.

I’d really appreciate it if anyone could let us know how they might approach this or let me know if I’m just being naïve and proposing nonsense.

Sorry lots of questions there : - )

Cheers

It looks like rebar, reinforced concrete was used across the top of the bay. The render probably got cracked when the window was fitted and over time its fallen away. I would have thought you could do a suitable patch repair, but getting a good colour match might be difficult. Why not get a couple more quotes for the work, also how long ago were those windows fitted. You might get some redress from the window company.
Don't use plasterboard outside.

gingerbiscuit said:

It looks like rebar, reinforced concrete was used across the top of the bay. The render probably got cracked when the window was fitted and over time its fallen away. I would have thought you could do a suitable patch repair, but getting a good colour match might be difficult. Why not get a couple more quotes for the work, also how long ago were those windows fitted. You might get some redress from the window company.
Don't use plasterboard outside.

Click to expand...

Thanks gingerbiscuit
I've now found out that all of the render has now been removed to avoid the possibility of it falling on anyone, so a patching this small bit is now out of the question. Looks like the whole width will have to be redone. I couldn't see any signs of steel wire or rust in the chunk that fell off, or steel in or around what was the lath and plaster inside. The windows were put in more than 20 years ago but I've got a feeling the fitter failed to steel reinforce the concrete/render section that this bit has fallen off from. As for the plasterboard, d'oh, of course plasterboard isn't waterproof, silly me. So I'm still wondering if some steel mesh well fixed to the existing lath etc, would be a reasonable base to build on? I will get some more quotes although I'm equally thinking about having a crack at it myself. Any more comments would be welcome, thanks all.

I dont see any "concrete" or "rebar" - why would any builder use "concrete" over a bay?
"rodded" & "cast of concrete" are nonsense words in terms of that bay.

OP,
You have a hip roofed tiled bay with a fascia and gutter - below the fascia, & perhaps behind it is a cornice rendered in sand and cement, & troweled onto wood plaster laths. The render has been been dashed.

The fascia is rotting & needs re-newing - the gutter is looking pretty rough & maybe leaking.There are signs of water penetrating down the back of the gutter.

It might be that the best approach to this would be to lift the roof tiles and any underfelt and remove the remains of the cornice render, the gutter & fascia then post photos on here of what has been exposed?

Are there any signs of damp or cracking on the inside bay ceiling?

vinn said:

I dont see any "concrete" or "rebar" - why would any builder use "concrete" over a bay?
"rodded" & "cast of concrete" are nonsense words in terms of that bay.

OP,
You have a hip roofed tiled bay with a fascia and gutter - below the fascia, & perhaps behind it is a cornice rendered in sand and cement, & troweled onto wood plaster laths. The render has been been dashed.

The fascia is rotting & needs re-newing - the gutter is looking pretty rough & maybe leaking.There are signs of water penetrating down the back of the gutter.

It might be that the best approach to this would be to lift the roof tiles and any underfelt and remove the remains of the cornice render, the gutter & fascia then post photos on here of what has been exposed?

Are there any signs of damp or cracking on the inside bay ceiling?

Click to expand...

Vinn, thanks for giving me the component names mate. As far as the fascia and gutter not being right, you're most likely spot on (I've not had a really good look at this yet). I can't see any inside bay ceiling issues but thanks for bringing my attention to the possibility. As I don't live in my mum's house I'm not exposed to the problems daily, so I can't keep a constant eye on it the way I do with mine, but I reckon you're bang on with pulling it apart a bit to see what needs renovating/fixing.

Thanks a lot.

Looks like you need new facsias, Gutters and the under cloak. All of which could be done in PVC.
I would ask the neighbors who did theirs. Looks like a neat job from what I can see.

Gazman16 said:

Looks like you need new facsias, Gutters and the under cloak. All of which could be done in PVC.
I would ask the neighbors who did theirs. Looks like a neat job from what I can see.

Click to expand...

PVC, there's a thought. Thanks Gazman.