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!

 

[dauwerda]

r13, what other explanation is there for what is happening in the picture below?

 

[r13]

The black straight lines trace the header layers. The yellow lines simply connect those lines. The red lines are suspected cracks.

 

[phamENG]

Right...but where is it going? At some point the movement has to be reconciled.

 

[r13]

You have stated the key phase that draw my suspicion - it is a built-in defect originally to correct some type of mistake, that may not be settlement though. If the arch has settled after construction, there should be noticeable cracks and repair works around the interface, especially to the left end of the arch, as well as to its right.

 

[r13]

pham has raised a good question. Can brick alone to absorb the not so small differential settlement?

 

[phamENG]

What are these, then?

 

[phamENG]

Can brick alone to absorb the not so small differential settlement?

Absolutely not. If it could, we wouldn't see the giant hole in the wall that was repaired, or the open joints 4" tall packed with repair mortar.

 

[r13]

pham,

Note the offsets happened on wall below the window too. The upper arch has an obvious crack repair done, the lower arch is not so obvious. Actually we are all guessing here, why not let field survey tell the fact.

 

[phamENG]

At the spring, no, but between the bricks you can see variations in the joint width from joint to joint. So can that arrangement take up the rotational displacement - to a point. If we had hi-res close ups, I'm sure there'd be some obvious gaps and likely some missing mortar in the arch joints. You can also see rather plainly the slope in the arch. Look at the window further to the left. It's nice and even - just as you'd expect in what amounts to a small mansion where I live. I'd be willing to bet that it is not a construction defect - who would spend that kind of money, look at the arch and say, "meh - no big deal." Nobody.

 

[Tomfh]

The lower arch (and some brickwork above it) has rotated as a whole unit. That’s why there’s no step through the arch.

 

[r13]

Tomfh,

You are correct on the rotation of the entire lower window arch, the thing bothers me is the lack of huge cracks, or apparent repair, at the left side/corner to accommodate the rotation.

 

[Tomfh]

There’s white mortar around the left end of the arch. Presumably it rotated there?

 

[oldestguy]

What does the inside look like? Cracked walls? Settled floor?

 

[r13]

Tomfh,

Could be.

 

[Ingeniator-Glenn]

Great discussion here.

R13, while I dont agree with your hypothesis it is well argued. Which i feel one would have difficulty trying to challenge this in a formal (with no further info than the images).

I believe we don't see the large cracks as noted because the majority of the movement has occurred at the window. The movements is hidden in minor cracking in the mortar joints as indicated by others.

 

[r13]

I hope you have convinced me, so I can do other things more interesting

 

[IRstuff]

You can also see that the window sill is tilted in the same direction as the assumed drop in brickwork, so that the sill is no longer parallel to the bottom of the window.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[r13]

(Pic 1) Too neat the uniform drop of wall on left of the window, or rise on the right. Note the location of the bay window.

(Pic 2 & 3) The wall base elevation drop before and after the bay window might have contributed to the mess up of header row alignment.

 

[r13]

Suggestions on to do:

1) Perform level and plumb survey on the building to identify tilting, if any.
2) Inspect the wall-roof joints to identify hidden cracks, if any.
3) Inspect building interior to identify damages, if any.

If none of the above inspections yields meaningful result, I would suggest to perform cosmetic repairs on the wall (replace the deteriorated bricks), and repointing to seal the cracks, softened joints. that allow water to seep through. IMO, it's not yet the time to spent a fortune on an ugly but functioning wall, at least for another while. I'll leave the repair of the arch to later time, on major rework, or complete wall replacement.