Thanks Woody. Yes I realise I am a worrier by nature. I'm not a bad guy though honest! First taste of home ownership and just want to be as sure as possible things can be made as safe as they possibly can be before moving on. I have made initial contact with a local structural engineer and if I am able to employ them to report and they advise only patching up needed then I would be happy to have the report and get it sorted and forget it altogether. If they advised there is no fault at present but helibars might help mitigate future risk I would definitely consider them. Would this affect a sale if there was a report saying no current fault but Helibars could sure up the structure going forward?
The floor on the lounge diner nearest the cut is suspended wooden. Only solid in hallway and kitchen which are to the far left when looking from the rear aspect and not near the cut.
A brick is 4.5" thick (11.45cm). Helifix recommend burying the bar 2.5-3.5cm deep. The polyester resin used to fit them will cure within 20 mins during the summer. I have never seen a brickie support a wall during that process. It is not far off the depth that a pointer will dig out prior to repointing (on Victorian property).
No. A buyer can't rely on any report done for you, or for your purpose. The fact that you would present such a report would itself raise alarm bells!
Think about it ... that broken concrete has been broken for over 30 years and there are no problems, but you want to carry out what is a structural repair "in case" anything happens in the future.
Now extend that same logic to every other part of the house from the foundations, the walls, the floors, the roof and think of what repairs you will need "just in case". You better get cracking.
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An advantage of the above one is that it is supplied with two nozzles. You need to work quickly when using it because of the speed at which it cures. I use bits of card to bed in the helibars. Do not get any on the brick facing, it sets rock hard.
Probably "That was an easy £400". Oh you mean in the report.
I'm predicting loads of legal arse-covering, lots of "may" and "could".
Seriously, it would be interesting to know what is said. It's easier to not worry about someone else's house. Ours has cracks all over the place, have learnt to not care as it hasn't fallen down in 70 years.
An update, the neighbour came around to see how the refurb was going and I pointed out how we'd found the lintel on removing the conservatory. They pointed to theirs looking similar but covered by flashing above their conservatory.
They then noticed a diagonal crack going upwards above and to the right from the approximate area of their own damaged part of the lintel and pointed out a couple of cracks (probably 2) within the pointing above and slightly left of the damage on our side.
Will try and get some photos later. Hadn't noticed until they did.
Noticed yesterday one diagonal crack running on next door's side running up and away from the area between the two separate lintel cuts.
Followed by diagonal crack on out side running in the opposite left hand direction away from the lintel damage. The lintel damage is to the bottom right hand side of the second photo.
I don't understand where the second picture is. Is it yours or next door's property? Is the flashing at the bottom of the second picture the same as what you can see on the extreme right of the first picture? Is your neighbour's a mirror image of yours? How far is from the bottom right of the second picture to the horizontal flashing you can see on the right of the first picture?
If I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing then it doesn't change much.
I don't understand where the second picture is. Is it yours or next door's property? Is the flashing at the bottom of the second picture the same as what you can see on the extreme right of the first picture? Is your neighbour's a mirror image of yours? How far is from the bottom right of the second picture to the horizontal flashing you can see on the right of the first picture?
If I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing then it doesn't change much.
The second picture is our property and is directly to the top and left direction of the damage. I had to zoom in to show the crack and then it was no longer possible to show the damage within the same shot.
The flashing on the second image runs above the lintel and runs all the way along the back of our house and is simply what is remaining from what used to waterproof the seal to the conservatory all the way along. Have a look at first post and you will see it (the flashing) on there.
It's not a big crack with no broken brick and personally I wouldn't worry about it. I can't think of any reason why it would get worse apart from water getting into the damaged region, and even then it would take a very long time to cause a problem.
The crack is there because the outside of the lintel to the left of the damaged region has dropped by about 1mm. About half of the weight of the brick work above the unsupported span would have originally passed across the now damaged region. Now it has found another route. I guess towards the right across the remaining undamaged region of the lintel with a small amount to the left side of the span.
The factor of safety has been reduced by the damage but it is still greater than 1. A structural engineer will look for ways to restore the factor of safety to that required by current building regulations. Without doing any calculations myself I would guess that your helical bar solution would be sufficient. Contrary to what I wrote before they should be centred on the crack, close to the bottom, with I guess about 3 brick lengths on either side. Removing the mortar the full depth of brickwork risks weakening the structure temporarily. I'd avoid that and go for single bars on more courses.
An alternative solution would be to put in a column at the right hand side of the unsupported span flush with existing wall. I don't see any merit that right now, but simply present it as an option in case more information comes to light.
So I have contacted a local firm of structural engineers who have seen some photos and have emailed with a bit of free advice. Make of this what you wish.
They advise that ideally they would wish to see a bit more of the concrete on the lintel stripped back to determine whether the corrosion is localised or more of an issue within the whole lintel. Corrosion wasn't my main concern to be honest it was more the break in the lintel.
They have said best case the rust could be treated, but they have suggested Helibars may be required and overlapping onto the neighbours property to span either side of the damage. They have advised I contact Helifix about the potential requirement and if they felt a structural engineer's report or measurements were needed I could get them (structural engineer) out.
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