off the peg houses, why the difference?

[rjm2k]

There are a number of houses the same as mine on and around the same street, a "type c". I noticed that my neighbours house doesn't have a piece of what I thought was wood, undernearth the arch of the porch. "great" I thought, "I can removed it and it's one less thing to paint". only thing is, when I went to have a look, it turns out the wood is only part of it, it's actually concealing a metal tray which i can only assume is a tie, between the walls of the porch. it's metal and it's a tray, the bricks are not resting on it and it's embedded in each wall! this property is the only one of the type with this addition, it is probably the first on our street of this design to be built, but there are others on the street from which ours comes that are older and of the same design (minus this tray)

I'm not contemplating removing it, just curious why otherwise identical houses would have such a difference, here's a photo of mine and a neighbours otherwise identical porch

thanks

 

[John D v2.0]

The metal tie will be a lintel holding up the bricks above.
Not sure whether they changed the mechanism of support between the two houses, anything could happen on site! Maybe they ran out of lintels when they got to theirs and got an old school brickies in to do a flat arch

 

[rjm2k]

the bricks above aren't touching it, I can put my hand in there between them. the only thing I can think and I can't tell from these photos is that maybe ours is taller than theirs, so the wall height could come into it. it's a U shaped tray , could they have put a lintel in upside down by mistake? there's a small amount of cracking in the brickwork above. It looks like the abutments might be dug in a little more on theirs than ours, though the arch looks flatter too, surely a flatter arch would be more likely to require support than a less flat one?

 

[ivixor]

Yours looks like it has had some more recent work done - the mortar around the arch is of a different colour. Maybe it collapsed and the steel is part of the fix?

 

[rjm2k]

Well spotted I hadn't noticed the difference in mortar I reckon you are right, I might poke my inspection camera under it I think there might be packing between the brick and steel, maybe wood

 

[Mike10]

At least your one is level, unlike number 12's

 

[^woody^]

"Mom, the crazy man from next door is taking pictures of the house again"