Oooh me arches have fallen

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

so had one Mr Michael Burleigh round today to look at my bricks and pointing and stuff. Really interesting guy, really seems to know his stuff....
Anyway not to put too fine a point on it he told me that the "flat arches have fallen" above my downstairs windows. When I asked him what I should do about it he did say something but I'm not too sure what it was now. He seems to have big projects for big houses so I'm not convinced our little 2 up 2 down will be something he'd be interested in. Anyway I need some input on what to do about it and who to contact to tell me what to do about it... Is a Structural Engineer / Surveyor the sort of people I need to contact?

The cracks in the pointing correspond to where I've previously removed the cement pointing on my last jaunt up my ladder, so obviously it's been "repaired" before.

If I get a minute tomorrow I'll take a couple of pictures....

Paul.

 

[MatthewC]

If, by "flat arches" he means a brick soldier course in a very gentle arch above the window, then I'll be most interested to see your photos. I had an issue with one of those, and got it fixed quite easily.
Matthew

 

[stuart45]

Could be a soldier course, or brick on edge, or a camber arch. The camber may be the most difficult especially if done with gauged or rubbed brickwork.

 

[Anonymous]

Well here goes then... pictures (hopefully below)... on second looking I don't actually think it looks that bad, and maybe he just saw an opportunity to sell me a service !
Any how here goes;


right hand window...The visible "crack" if you like is actually as a result of me removing some cement mortar, perhaps an earlier repair for the same problem.


right hand window....

There are oak lintels internally and another "soldier" (if that's the term) course which sit on these, though a little bent, still rigid and very much intact.

Paul.

 

[stuart45]

It's a brick on edge or rowlock course. Soldier is also known as brick on end. When built on top of a timber frame was OK, but when replaced with plastic they often tend to drop.
Normally a special catnic lintel is used or some people stick an angle iron in.

 

[Anonymous]

It's not on a plastic frame... it's all timber....

 

[stuart45]

Should be OK sitting on a decent timber frame. The B.O.E might have dropped slightly, but it does not look too bad. When there's plastic below it tends to bend the frame and either crack the glass or jamb up the opening frames.

 

[Anonymous]

so do you think It would be worth raking out the mortar and repointing or just leave it alone?

 

[stuart45]

I would probably carefully rake out the cracked bits and repoint on the wall above to stop water getting in and freezing.
Be really carefull with the brick on edge as if you loosen one it can affect the rest and you end up whipping them all out. Not too much of a problem for a bricklayer on site, but you want to avoid too many problems if doing it yourself.