Vertical crack on external brick wall

I spoke to him specifically about this crack and he said that it is not subsidance. He said it is an expansion crack at the weakest point of the wall and it will expand and contract periodically so needs a flexible sealant otherwise it will keep cracking. He said he would be surprised to see a clay brick house of this age without similar cracks. He said there is no damage internally and it is the internal walls that support the structure of the house so he doesn't think it needs any further investigation
 
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It looks like that small window below the crack has no supporting lintel above it for the masonry to sit on. The crack appears to be vertical and that particular bit of wall load comes down to just above that grill / window with not a lot to support it. Maybe just putting in a lintel and repointing the brickwork properly will resolve the issue?
 
It's beyond my knowledge, but if you have any additional questions you think I should ask him about it that would be great?

He initially left me a voicemail and his words relating to the crack were:

"I'm quite comfortable about that, it looks long term, old expansion cracking. It's the weakest part of the wall in a long stretch of brickwork which today would have an expansion joint in it but doesn't because of the age so I'm not overly concerned about that"
 
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Your surveyor has seen the house, we haven't, so if he's confirmed he's happy............. :)
 
I would be extremely surprised if the cracking to the flank wall is "expansion" cracking especially as the report has not confirmed what has caused this expansion.

The most common cause of expansion is thermal but the flank wall appears to be reasonably sheltered by the adjoining property. If it is thermal expansion cracking you should be able to see vertical cracks at the front and rear corners where the front and rear elevation brickwork is fractured by the horizontal movement of the flank wall.

I would proceed with caution. My money is still on subsidence.
 
l.

The brick bond is a red herring. Overall it is stretcher bond but they have used cut bricks in the centre of the wall to avoid straight joints, which is common practice.
Only common practice when the bricklayers can't set out.
 
So what do you do when the length of the wall does not match standard brick units? Just have 15mm perps to lose the gap? or squeeze them down to 5mm.

I was taught to layout dry and have the cut bricks in the middle of the wall and to the best of my knowledge that is the normal way to do it.

But please enlighten me how it should be done.
 
On a flank of that length I would have tightened up the cross joints a bit.
 
Fair enough, each to their own.

As you said before, the key is in the setting out and what works best with the door and window openings. 8mm perps may well have pinched enough room to squeeze a full brick in. I assume the bricklayer on this house had a good reason to do it the other way.

On re-reading the previous posts I have to agree that the unfortunate combination of the cut bricks with the window openings has created a weak point so the stresses created in that wall panel were bound to show there, which explains why it appears as a toothed vertical crack.

My money is still on subsidence though.
 
Back in the day, one of the reasons buildings ended up poorly set out was because of pre-determined (timber) window sizes.

Before made-to-measure placcy windows became popular, off the shelf timber window and door frames were commonly used. These were all sized in imperial units, usually in 6" increments.

This is the reason why you often see cut bricks and is also the reason why you see brickies mucking-up when trying to gain to window and door head height.

The reason I questioned this particular case is the headers are reminiscent of an internal wall tie-in on say a single skin garage.
 
Subsidence.. maybe but I would tend to think it is more expansion issues or simply that its a poorly designed window layout that you would normally reinforce the brickwork but this wasn't done..

I still say that if you wish to buy, you should get a structural survey done and get recommendations on repairs..
 

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