Concerning bowing of window/wall, disaster waiting to happen?

[Lloydy1975]

Hello people of period properties.
I have posted a couple of things prior to this, however I have put an offer forward for this house.

It’s a very exciting time, however it also comes with concerns. One being the bowing of this window frame/wall.

The house itself has been refurbished recently and there has been painting and re decorating throughout. Is this hiding what may be laying behind the paint on the wall?

Any advice/ thoughts are appreciated, you all have been such a bit help in understanding what is happening to properties and why, and any further input on this query would be extremely appreciated.


All the best, many thanks;
Lloyd

 

[stuart45]

Have you got an external photo?

 

[aockenden]

View attachment 16432
The house itself has been refurbished recently and there has been painting and re decorating throughout. Is this hiding what may be laying behind the paint on the wall?

Yes, the paint is indeed hiding what lies beneath the paint on the wall. The only important question is whether it’s hiding pristine walls or walls with some problems. Whatever problems MAY lurk beneath will eventually manifest themselves visibly and internally in a variety of potential forms.

In the meantime there are things you can do to learn more about what has been done. Knock on the inside faces of the cold external masonry walls. Do they sound hollow / feel like there’s a boarding system sitting on the wall? You can do minimally invasive investigations with flexible snake camera things to look behind any boarding systems you may find. You can drill small holes in places to determine the layers of stuff that currently exist. You can see what the outside of the building is telling you and correlate that to what you're interested in internally.

 

[stuart45]

Unfortunately, newly refurbished often means it's been toshed up by a flipper for maximum profit. It's possible that there's a timber lintel over the window which has deflected over the years.
I'd be careful about paying top dollar to make a flipper rich. There's nothing wrong with a genuine developer getting an old wreck and restoring it to a good standard. The trouble is that most of the developers I've worked for over the years are out for the maximum profit.

 

[aockenden]

toshed up by a flipper

 

[stuart45]

In the trade, toshers are painters who haven't served an apprenticeship, but are useful for some of the simpler work. Also called brush hands. Useful to flippers as they still make a house look clean and tidy to the average buyer.
Toshers in Victorian days were scavengers.

 

[Michael55]

Would that bowing force the upvc downwards creating external stepped cracks away from the window below? I sometimes see that on old properties that have had upvc frames chucked in

 

[stuart45]

What you've seeing is normally the brickwork over the window below deflecting down because the original timber frame was acting as a lintel for the outer skin, but when replaced with plastic there should be a lintel installed.