Any Builders here? .... Boot Lintel question.

[Fastpedaller]

Our Daughter is considering purchasing a house. Interior needs work (not an issue), but I have a worry about the lintels. It has boot lintels and clearly there has been some dropping after UPVC windows were installed. There is about 10mm of mortar added above the lintels, and some minor cracking on the inside plaster of the inner blockwork. I've googled and it seems a way of 'sorting' it so there are less likely to be any future issues is to embed stainless steel helical bars within brick courses to spread the loads.
Does anyone know the cost of doing such work? Windows are about 2m across.

 

[bikingdad90]

can you elaborate how the cracking looks? It is straight and following a joint sheet line/joist line or more of a zig zag that follows the brickwork pattern?

 

[Fastpedaller]

Thankfully nothing as bad....... just shrinkage at the ends of the boot on the outer skin. On the inside a horizontal 'ripple' on the plaster in a couple of places. We saw 2 bungalows last weekend which both had cracks in a zig-zag pattern through the mortar on the outer (brick) skins, and severe 45 degree cracks from the corners on the window reveals. One of them had a doorway that had been made redundant in order to convert a bathroom into a large wetroom. I've never seen brickwork quite like it - a kid competent at Lego could have done better.
Anway back on subject - the area where our Daughter is seeking to buy seems to have every house or bungalow with boot lintels.
ETA the 10mm mortar that's been added is the horizontal join between the lintel and the first course above.

 

[Cycleops]

House purchase is such a important investment I’d be asking a somebody qualified in such things and paying rather than asking on a cycling forum.
Have you had a survey done?

 

[Fastpedaller]

Good point. I've never had a structural survey on any house we've bought, but always asked around or used my own head. I'll tell you why........ We were thinking of buying a house 25 years ago and (having looked ourselves) asked a surveyors what their 'gold service' survey covered. the answer "we tell you if there are any structural issues we can see". I said "a couple of things we have seen are that the consumer unit appears to be a museum piece, and there is a tree within 15 feet of the building." Their comment "we can tell you if the consumer unit is old, and you'll need to ask a tree specialist whether the tree is likely to cause any damage to the building". We didn't go for that one, but I suspect it would be better to get an electrician to have a look and similar for the tree rather than pay for the (at the time )£600 survey.
I've had a good look around the property, no cracking bricks, no visible sagging on roof or missing tiles etc, so nothing major as yet, but the boot lintels are a concern - The boot lintels seem prolific in the area she wants to buy - last weekend we saw 2 bungalows that had severe cracks from window openings and I'd not have wanted to take either of them on.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

Good point. I've never had a structural survey on any house we've bought, but always asked around or used my own head. I'll tell you why........ We were thinking of buying a house 25 years ago and (having looked ourselves) asked a surveyors what their 'gold service' survey covered. the answer "we tell you if there are any structural issues we can see". I said "a couple of things we have seen are that the consumer unit appears to be a museum piece, and there is a tree within 15 feet of the building." Their comment "we can tell you if the consumer unit is old, and you'll need to ask a tree specialist whether the tree is likely to cause any damage to the building". We didn't go for that one, but I suspect it would be better to get an electrician to have a look and similar for the tree rather than pay for the (at the time )£600 survey.
I've had a good look around the property, no cracking bricks, no visible sagging on roof or missing tiles etc, so nothing major as yet, but the boot lintels are a concern - The boot lintels seem prolific in the area she wants to buy - last weekend we saw 2 bungalows that had severe cracks from window openings and I'd not have wanted to take either of them on.

I've had very similar experience, to the point I flatly refused to pay them. A property I was looking at had a slope on one of the upper floors. The very expensive survey told me how much it sloped by, and advised I get a structural engineer, which presumably they would provide at even greater expense, and with an expensive remedy.

I did a bit of investigating myself and determined that it was common to all the nearby properties and was a result of poor workmanship, not structurally significant, and could be resolved in my own time if the need or opportunity arose.

Neither occurred and I sold it with the same slope, and no issues.

 

[Jameshow]

Any pics?

I'd suggest it would cost £500 per window to fix with new lintels.

If they aren't moving or deteriorating I'd just leave until they do.

 

[CXRAndy]

There are a quite a few YouTuber builders that regularly do lintels of all sorts.

Straight forward for a good builder to sort. Involves several courses to be removed, akro props sometimes are necessary.

Remove old lintel, replace with modern lintel and cavity closer over the top to prevent water/or condensation damage. Refit bricks with new mortar

I watch these guys, they do loads of them
View: https://youtu.be/Ig_8AKQRGsI

 

[berty bassett]

Brickwork cracks in the weakest place , always from corner of window - I would leave alone unless it gets worse - when it starts cracking below the window then it’s an issue , heli bars help but will be a pain to match the mortar and will stand out more than a little crack . I have had to put concrete lintels above steel ones before as surveyor said wasn’t enough bearing on original lintels , not the prettiest solution but others in the street had done it so didn’t look too out of place
Half the time it’s just because mortar is too strong and there’s no give anymore - something g somewhere moves a mill and no choice but to crack

 

[Profpointy]

Good point. I've never had a structural survey on any house we've bought, but always asked around or used my own head. I'll tell you why........ We were thinking of buying a house 25 years ago and (having looked ourselves) asked a surveyors what their 'gold service' survey covered. the answer "we tell you if there are any structural issues we can see". I said "a couple of things we have seen are that the consumer unit appears to be a museum piece, and there is a tree within 15 feet of the building." Their comment "we can tell you if the consumer unit is old, and you'll need to ask a tree specialist whether the tree is likely to cause any damage to the building". We didn't go for that one, but I suspect it would be better to get an electrician to have a look and similar for the tree rather than pay for the (at the time )£600 survey.
I've had a good look around the property, no cracking bricks, no visible sagging on roof or missing tiles etc, so nothing major as yet, but the boot lintels are a concern - The boot lintels seem prolific in the area she wants to buy - last weekend we saw 2 bungalows that had severe cracks from window openings and I'd not have wanted to take either of them on.

I agree. Paid a fair whack of money for a so say survey, and some gems included "a sample of the windows were tried and found to be stuck". Ffs, it was a two bedroom flat and they only tried "a sample". I tried them all and none were actually stuck. And as you say, most of the words were telling me they hadn't actually checked anything. Another gem " possible crack in ceiling potentially expensive. Couldn't look closely as didn't have a ladder" So what am I paying for exactly? Said crack was peeling paint. I think all this utterly useless report coat me £600 - I was fuming frankly. My solicitor gave me far more useful and informative information on the construction and risks of such a property - and as far as I'm aware he'd never set foot in the place. Still, perhaps the surveyor hadn't either

 

[neil_merseyside]

We had quotes varying from £600 to £1800 for an outer course catnic lintel for a 2.7m span. Note that the previous helical bar repair having failed and staircase cracking reappearing (helical bar not a good repair method for lintels apparently?).

 

[CXRAndy]

We had quotes varying from £600 to £1800 for an outer course catnic lintel for a 2.7m span. Note that the previous helical bar repair having failed and staircase cracking reappearing (helical bar not a good repair method for lintels apparently?).

As they say, do it right, do it once.

With modern galvanised coatings the lintels last far longer.

Cavity guard prevents water lingering on the lintel