There's a great crack in my house

Mira, I wouldn't say enigmatic, but indecisive at times due to confusion in his life ...

Actually, mentioning that word, I used to wear Enigma Perfume by Alexandra de Markoff but I think it may be a little strong for me now that I am gracefully older.

 

On a slightly more serious note, this reminds me of one of my grandad's tales, about how he and his mate narrowly avoided becoming POWs during WW2.

 

Oh bother, you were the other link in the chain for the book that has just gone Armandii>JackMcH>Shineyland>back to GCHQ

Will have to send it up to you now

Tell us the tale o master

 

My grandad was a bit older and a lot more experienced in military life by the time war broke out, and therefore a bit more composed just through maturity and experience.

The story goes that he and a comrade were scouting out an enemy position when they were spotted by a young nazi soldier. The nazi soldier, according to my grandad, was clearly terrified and excited at the same time because he had the upper hand, having caught my grandad and his comrade from behind, and therefore, with a gun pointing at them, my grandad and his mate dropped their weapons and held their hands up. In the following few moments, my grandad calmly told the soldier that he knew that neither of them wanted to be there any more than the other, and can he (my grandad) have a smoke before he is taken away. The nazi soldier agreed, so my grandad offered the smokes around, including one for the now shaking captor. The nazi apparently fumbled for his matches, and struggling to do so while also holding a rifle, my grandad allegedly calmly said 'I'll hold that for you'. Absent mindedly, the nazi soldier let go of the gun.

My grandad told the story many times, and it was always the same up to this point, but as much as it is inevitable that he had to kill people in his duty, he could never bring himself to actually say so, so the end of the story changed several times from claims that they kicked the nazi up the behind and told him to be on his way, to that they just backed off and disappeared back into the woods. We'll never know I guess.

 

Cor, thats a good un

Willow said to ask your boy if he remembers being there.

 

Back to this crack in my house.

If my house has cavity walls, am I right in thinking that behind the bricks there'll be another wall probably made of breeze blocks?

If that's right, does that mean that even if the bricks come away completely before I get it fixed, the house will still be structurally sound?

 

Here's a pic of the great crack in my house.



Look at the downpipe, then about half way down the pic, starting from just to the right of the downpipe, you can see the crack.

You can just make out that something has in the past been inserted into the wall, see where the white splat mark is. It looks to me like a piece of wood, but looking at this photo (it looks different from outside when you actually look at it) it looks to me like whatever is in there has pushed the bricks a tiny bit. This pic is of the side of the house. The crack continues round the front, but is far less noticeable, almost as though the dislodged bricks have been pivoted.

 

I've got ya, yes there is lateral movement, I can see a couple of bricks out of line of the quoin.

You're right, it was probably caused by expansion either by the bit of wood swelling up or frost expansion.

Nothing to worry about, the ties won't matter in such a small area, just take out the bricks, clean em up & re bed on lime mortar in the spring. I'll talk you thru that bit when you do it, not as simple as just slapping a bit of cement in, but not complex either, just need to keep it from drying out quickly.

You can take that many bricks out & your house won't fall down

May be concrete blocks in behind, or maybe another skin of bricks.

Reminds me of a building society survey on a previous house.

They wanted me to get my wall ties inspected by a member of the cavity wall tie association, they wanted to hold back thousands of quid till I had it done.

They gave that idea up when I wrote to them saying how can a 9 inch solid brick wall have cavity wall ties in it?

 

Hope you don't mind if I diversify Clueless, I have a question for Zigs.

Back in the sixties we were forced to move house because of compulsory purchase. My parents decided to buy one of three visually identical houses that were being built in another area.

Having been given the choice on how it was built my dad decided on 'turned' brick. I know what that looks like but can you explain to me why he would have chosen that and what difference it makes to the construction of the building please.

 

You got me there Sheal, not heard of turned brick. Could it have been Rubbed Brick?

 

No Zigs every alternate brick was turned, so that one brick you saw the side of the next you saw the end of, if you get my meaning.

 

The expensive method, and logical that only a true brickie would be on the job other than casual labour ?

John is a brick layer, Bob is a time served qualified bricklayer and Pete is a bricklayer
Better put Bob on the job

Jack McH

 

Sorry Jack, I'm not with you, are you talking about GC members?

 

Of course he is Sheal

 

Ahh, with you now, that shows that its a solid 9" wall. If you can only see the side (Stretcher face) then it would be a cavity wall with a gap crossed by metal ties.

Some bright spark thought that would improve insulation, but the cavity is open at the top so the air in it forms convection currents so any heat that gets thru the inner skin goes straight up & out into the attic

Your Dad probably knew that once its warmed up, the thermal mass of a solid wall would hold the heat better than one with a draughty gap in it.

They tried to solve the problem with cavity foam insulation, trouble is, its difficult to prove that its filled all the gaps. Seen a few cavities where it was patchy.

Nowdays they still build with a cavity, but its filled as they go with cellotex insulation.