Ahh! Bay Window Structural Issue

[OB]

Don't ya just love it!

So I had some new windows put in (UPVC), reputable local firm and I checked they used steel jacking poles and everything is in and looks good. The first thing the fitters said when they saw the Bay (upstairs) was wow you're bays coming away! Within about 15 seconds of getting out of the van! So trudge upstairs, tap the wall and they say 'yep, I bet it I took that off there would be a big crack in the plaster'.

Anyway, windows in and a good job done. The paper in the upstairs bay needs to come off anyway to be decorated so I take it off (polystyrene backed!) to reveal a big old cracks where both angles of the bay join the main walls.

Even more worrying is a damp part on the wall near the window sill front right corner (as I'm looking out the window) of the bay, so I poke around and plaster comes away (no surprise in this house!) oh there's timber in there, so I poke it - rotten and sodden. I knew the old windows were leaking and now I know where it was getting in!

So in a nutshell, the upright is rotten from top to bottom and the lateral timber frame is rotten at the point where it meets the upright. Surprising the bottom lateral timber seems ok as the rot didn't quite get that far.

I'm desperate not to have to call in builders having just laid out 5k on the windows and fitting, bit annoyed the fitters didn't spot and advise to be honest, they must have seen the joint wood had gone (never mind).

Do you think this is a SE and builder job or something I can put right from inside. I'm thinking steel plate top and bottom across the lateral posts and new upright.

I've uploaded some pics and a detail to give an idea of what I'm rambling about! Advice please and sorry for the long post!

Bay Front Right

• OB
• 26 Sep 2014
• 1

Bay Back Right Crack

• OB
• 26 Sep 2014
• 1

Bay Back Left

• OB
• 26 Sep 2014
• 1

Zoom From right Upright

• OB
• 26 Sep 2014
• 1

Plan of window

• OB
• 26 Sep 2014
• 1

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[ree]

Thank you for the pics and diagrams.


If you remove all the paper from the bay apron (all below the window board), and the return walls, and also remove all the skirtings, then roll back or remove the carpet, and post pics of the whole bay interior on here.

Pics of the full bay from three outside angles will help.

examine the bay ceiling - remove the paper if necessary - then pic and post on here. There wil probablyl be a wood lintel, called a Bressumer beam, lintelling the main wall, and the bearing ends are inclined to rot if the bay has pulled away and allowed water in.

Have you carefully inspected the ground floor bay?

AAMOI: window fitters often cause structural disturbance to bay's by forcing in their frames.

 

[catlad]

I don't understand you said the fitters told you 15 seconds after they got out of the van that your bay window had structural issues.

 

[OB]

There's a pin line crack partly showing on the exterior render where it meets the main wall and he took one look and said he bet it had a bigger crack inside!

He was right!

 

[OB]

The more I look at it the more it looks like an SE and a builder job (which is a pain the wallet!).

Thanks everyone but I think this is a job for the professionals.

 

[ree]

AAMOI; both respondents are professionals. And one thing that i've learned in a lifetime in the building trade is that the world is full of imbeciles.

If only you had looked a little more and a little harder you might have saved us both time and energy in replying.