got a crack.. is this bad?

[crossercuss]

could anyone tell me if this is a major problem? i cant tell if theres a lintel or not but im gathering not by the way the bricks have dropped.. this is also causing the window to bow.. its a 6ft window on the ground floor... any idea on how to repair and rough idea of cost would be great... oh and what a great forum... kept me reading for hours...

 

[^woody^]

You need a lintel installed on the external face only.

The glass will be breaking soon

 

[Goldberg]

It doesn't look great.

Is that window really distorted, or is it an optical illusion?

Has there been any ground shifting or subsidence?

Can you take a photo showing more of the wall?

 

[^woody^]

Previously the old (stronger) frame held the bricks up.

The external leaf has dropped once the plastic windows were installed. Its common.

There is a lintel on the inside holding the bulk of the wall up, and the external leaf is tied in with the rows of headers seen further up.

But every time that window is slammed shut after an argument, the few courses drop a little, and distort the plastic frame. Eventually the glass is stressed and cracks

 

[crossercuss]

that was a quick response... thanks

theres no sign of any other movement .. that is the only crack and only on the outside.. fine inside... will put a pic up of the front of the house ... i thought it might be a lack of lintel.. i gather the type of brick bonding is stopping it drop any further....

 

[Richard C]

It does beg the question if there is actually a lintel up there & if not, why not. There may be a cast in situ concrete one beneath those soldiers but if there is & it’s failed, you’re in for a fair bit of work getting it out let alone replacing it. Whats happend on the inside?

 

[crossercuss]

forgot to mention that its a 19th century cottage with no cavity as far as i know.....

 

[crossercuss]

 

[noseall]

Agree with woodster, the brick panel above the window is vulnerable due to the fact there is another window directly above and the reasons for the failure as he describes, i.e lack of support from placcy windows.

It certainly appears that the weakness starts just below the first course of headers above the window, hence the headers are doing their job and the inner leaf is still intact.

If the building is as old as 19th century then there is a possibility that the internal lintel is timber. so remedy as you find but certainly insert an external lintel soon.

The soldier headers above the window are not original, they were probably fitted after a previous window replacement.