sagging outside brick wall 6

[lubos1984]

hello everyone,

I recently did an inspection of a old victorian home in Toronto. While doing the inspection i noticed that the outside brick wall has sagged around the archway windows and in some areas of the wall. Upon closer examination there were no lintels installed in the window arches and I think that contributed to some of the settlement you can see on the pics.
The brick settlement seems to extend above the lintel as well however as you can see from the brickline above the window.

The house is constructed with two rows of brick on the outside wall. I didn't see any settlement at the foundation level although the outside wall seems to have concrete parging.

The client wants to know what the best recommendation is to repair this issue and if there are any underlying structural problems. They are considering a re-work of the outside brick veneer but wanted to know if there are any foundation issues. Any opinion on what some of the causes of the brick settlement may be and what other clues I can look for ?

Thank you!

 

[KootK]

 

[WARose]

Looks like a arch formed in the brick over the lower window. When that gave a bit, that led to the issues seen. (Looks like it's been fixed before.)

I'd definitely fix it with some kind of curved plate/angle over the lower window (as a form for the re-work at least).

 

[Tomfh]

Looks like the whole left hand wall has sunk/collapsed by almost 1 course, and has been subsequently patched up at all the places it cracked.

 

[Tomfh]

 

[oldestguy]

Hey. The wall now isn't moving. Leave as is.

 

[r13]

The upper brick is caving as shown by Tomfh, but the lower part is not (so foundation looked ok). Other suspicious areas of movement indicating wall softening.

 

[Tomfh]

but the lower part is not

The whole left side (red side) looks to be lower than the right side (green side)?

How has the top moved but not the bottom? Where the movement been taken up?

 

[r13]

It looks like the wall on the right has loosened, and rotate hinged on the windows. The overall displacement is quite small and spread over almost entire height. A level check can reveal level of distortion.

 

[kipfoot]

I think that the arch failure due to mortar deterioration. It's common under windows because water infiltration at the sill will eventually lead the mortar to turn to just sand that will fall out of the joint. In this case, the left side of the unfortunate arch below is under the window and for many decades received water dripping down through the masonry. The deterioration over time caused the left side to slip and the bricks to compress. There's typically wood piece over the window in the shape of the arch, which probably held up the masonry before the wood rotted away.

They could have done the whole repair when they sloppily replaced the brick under the window. Oh, so close!

I'd say that a localized repair would be appropriate: pulling out the bricks under the window and re-setting the arch. When the outer wythe is out, the inner wythe can also be repointed, but it's probably better to remove the plaster and do it from the inside, too.

If you're really doing it right, you'd re-point the whole wall at the same time.

 

[Tomfh]

The overall displacement is quite small

What do you mean by small overall displacement?
The left side looks to be about 1 course lower than the right side?

In my opinion there has been a major shift in the majority of the wall, with the difference in height showing up as arch failures. One side of the arches are lower because that whole side of the building has dropped.

 

[r13]

Small means there is rotation of area bricks without damaging the border elements - ridge and foundation lines, also no presence of noticeable wide cracks. The rotation is result of accumulation of microscopic joint separations in an area due to unequal softening, caused by weathering, or moisture. Due to shooting from an angle, the photos can be deceiving too.

 

[phamENG]

I'm with Tomfh on this one. It's tough to see it all the way down because the crack goes down to the bay window and gets lost at the change in material.

Here's a shot at the sill of the second floor window. You can clearly see that the brick opened up by nearly an entire course, and it was filled with mortar:

We don't have a good shot on the right side of the bay window at the foundation, but we do have the left side. Notice the crack in the slab running out from under the bay window. The coloration of the basement wall is also curious. Looks like the mortar parge was recently repaired. Can't draw any definitive conclusions from these, but I think it points to the possibility of some movement in the soils and perhaps some differential settlement.

 

[kipfoot]

I don't see overall settlement. The coursing aligns on both sides of the failed arch, from what I can ascertain from the photo where I pull imaginary strings at the bed joints:

I think the crack at the bay window is more likely a failed lintel (I'm guessing wood) over the masonry opening at the bay.

 

[Tomfh]

The coursing aligns

In my opinion the coursing aligns because Side A has settled by a full course relative to side B:

 

[dik]

It the outer wythe a veneer or are both wythes forming the wall? It would appear from the header coursing that they are attached.

Do you have any locations that should be the same on either side of the house? A coursing line and run it around the perimeter. You could do this with a typical header course (bricks turned 90 degrees). The wall does not appear to be well constructed with the difference in coursing thickness and the header courses each 10 course... normally it's about 7 courses max and often 5 courses. Checking the coursing line around the building will give an idea of what has settled. It looks like Tomfh is correct and that the left side of the building has settled.

Has the arch been constructed as non-symmetrical, or has the building settled? The one repair seems to have one deeper course extending to two less deep courses. Are there other arches that have a similar feature? If not, why was this one constructed in this fashion. Relatively flat arches are normally no problem with masonry as long as you have sufficient wall abutment on each side.

Earlier repair has been poorly done using a concrete cement type mortar and this has caused failure of adjacent masonry wall.

The masonry appears to be in pretty rough shape and the fireskin on some of the units has 'gone'. Was the wall cleaned with an abrasive at some time in the past? I've loaded an earlier paper on historic brickwork to SRE's website; you might want to look at it.

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[r13]

I think it is optical illusion/distortion. Especially in the location marked "dogleg" through repair. The arch is very odd though, which contributes to the effect.

 

[Tomfh]

I think it is optical illusion/distortion.

The wall is one course lower on side A. The repaired brickwork weaves across one course to make up the difference:

 

[r13]

The offset is limited in the repaired area. Some old damage (brick tilting) on the lower right remains.

 

[dauwerda]

Tomfh is definitely correct about this,
It is highlighted in the picture below:

The differential settlement happens at the bay window so it isn't readily apparent in the foundation as the foundation isn't visible at this point.