Cracks... to worry about or not?

[furpho]

Hi, i bought this 1940's bungalow 5 years ago and fully skimmed after refurb. Unfortunately the plaster has blown in a few places which I accept for such an old house. My concern is the crack in the bricks above the middle of the door. The bungalow has a kingspost truss resting immediately above this crack which I understand is the main support for the roof. The truss runs 10m across the length of the bungalow with no supports in between. As you can see the original lintel is wood but does look in excellent condition (the wet appearance is pva i've applied to keep the dust down). Should i be replacing this with a more substantial concrete lintel? With the lockdown it may be some time before i can get hold of acrows etc so if there's no need i'd like to get on and stop living in a building site.

There's no way of telling when this happened. It could have been 1945.

In the 3rd photo you can see the bay window has a substantial concrete lintel which i have to assume is original so why didn't they use concrete across the door?

 

[^woody^]

It does look more like shrinkage than overloading, although some flexing of the timber may have occurred over time. The door and frame alignment is not suffering as it would be expected if a loading problem.

Timber lintels over internal doors were common at that time and are typically OK to leave in place

 

[furpho]

Thanks Woody. The door is external but you’re right the alignment is fine and door opens without issue.

Much appreciated.

 

[Johnny Allround]

Hi Furpho, Woody is quite right in his assessment.l would like to add that the composite door that’s been installed is one heavy mother fecker and intern I have seen said cracks appear on other sites after composite doors have been fitted especially when there’s been a wooden lintel in place, ( they tend to move a bit more ).Nothing to worry about just don’t slam the door. Hope this helps!

 

[furpho]

Yes it definitely helps to have another opinion and it all makes good sense. Feeling much happier about this now. Thanks Johnny

 

[Johnny Allround]

Thanks Furpho, the reason the bay has a concrete lintel it’s load baring. It’s a rule of thumb now that you should insert reinforcements like poles , brackets and lintels to make sure they don’t come down. However I have seen some shockers. Can’t actually see the bay picture though.