Drooping Bay Window

No idea as to cost, but they should have used structural bay poles, to take the loading, as previous window members were loading bearing, & strong enough to cary the load without a lintel.
Windows frames will need to come out, you need acrows to support ground floor & first floor, then you need to jack up up to return everything to their orginal levels & fit structural bay poles.
I presume under that pebbledash maybe brickwork, if it were tiles, then it would a timber frame work.
It will come underBuilding control I suspect.

 

As what Kiab has said above but I would add to lift the carpets and floor boards and check the joists running into the bay. If the structure is sound - no rot, no cracks etc. you may want to double up on the joists becuase once timber has been used to being in one shape it always likes to return to it. The rule of thumb is 1/3 projection and 2/3 inside the building.

with scaffold, props, potentially new windows, remedial work to brick work /plaster you are looking at many thousands of pounds. So it may be worth returning to the surveyor to ask some serious questions.

 

A few coffee's, I'm abit more awake now, very surprise it wasn't picked up by building survey report, highly likely new windows, as bay poles aren't that small, also bay window brickwork might need completely rebuilding.

As Sospan up with carpet & floorboards & have a good nosey & have look in the attic over the bay.

Bay windows come under Building Regs Approved Document A.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...achment_data/file/429060/BR_PDF_AD_A_2013.pdf

 

Homebuyers report, totally worthless, full structral survey always best.

But,even with a structral survey things, can be missed, as they won't lift floorboards, etc, it's only visual.

 

I would question why the brickwork on the lower bay is a different colour, this looks like it was rebuilt. The crack has been there for some time as it has had several bodged repairs with cement.

I would contact a Structural Surveyor to look at this

 

Looking at first photo, trim abay left bay window, looks like it's sloping,as does wall above, might just be camera angle though.

 

Hi Home.

How many houses of this style are on your road? I presume the other half is identical anyway?

Chust wondering aloud, but I wonder if these bays are original? Or perhaps just the bottom one?

There's some contrary stuff there - the upper floor has 'sagged' in that bay, but the downstairs bay windows certainly haven't been crushed or sank! Also, with all that sagging, the rendered upper section would have done more than simply cracked - it would have crumbled...

So, something's a bit weird. Could only the bottom bay have existed originally, in which case it may have had a sloping flattish rooftop on it - ie the same slope as we currently see there?

I'd also hazard that the current windows - which don't look that old (any idea when they were fitted?) - are not the cause of this sagging, but that all that 'settlement' occurred before they were fitted.

So, what's needed to sort it? Depends on what's 'wrong'.

I'd love to seen under that carpet in the upstairs bay - what do the floor joists do as they go in to the bay? Are they 'add-ons' or extensions?

And I'd like to know who fitted these latest windows and when - they could very well be properly designed windows with structural poles in them, so all the movement has now come to a halt and no further remedial action is needed.

In which case all that house needs is for the floor into the upstairs bay to be levelled - easy, a few £undred - and that's about it.

Any thoughts on what you'll do with the rendered section? Keep it as is, or paint it a nice colour? If the latter, then you can probably chust fill these cracks with a good sealant (eg resin), dabble it to blend in the texture, and then paint it.

That is all, of course, best case scenarios...

 

With all that droop, how come all that render didn't break up and fall off?!

 

Doesn't always.

 

Too much PVA.

 

Years ago I watched something similar happen because they had only used one Accrow prop quite a bit off centre. The outer leaf of brick slipped down a couple of inches at one end when they took the lower bay window out
What they did was take the outer leaf of brick down and replace it with either wood or plastic panelling and so reducing the weight. I don't know what they did with inner leaf. . I don't know how you would go on nowadays with Regs about insulation and heat loss etc.
You need a good local builder who can find out just what has moved and why. It may be possible with thick insulation to comply with current Regs and have a low weight solution.
My advice would be not to throw a lot of money at it as you never know what else may go wrong in the future.

 

If there is a Fensa certificate, it is a slim chance but they may be interested in having a look at the quality of windows and installation

 

Agree.

 

Yup, a 3-year old installation is nothing - it's practically brand new. Both the windows and the fitting should be comfortably under warranty still.

I suspect, tho', that this issue was not caused during that last installation - I simply can't see how a 2" drop in that upper section could have occurred with such little damage to the render?

And the upper window seems level enough - surely that would have sagged in t'middle too as it wouldn't have been supported along there?

Anyhoo, I guess it's going to need an independent surveyor. I wonder if Fensa will send someone out?

 

There was a warning on this last year,apparently the bottom bay frame should have large pieces of aluminium in them to take the load rather than relying on the plastic frame.Apparently some manufacturers were not putting these in,even worse some fitters were removing them before fitting the frames and weighing them in for scrap.Some were that weak that it was impossible to open the downstairs windows,or they would open once then fail to close properly.

 

Heard of that happening more than once.