There's a great crack in my house

"Quote Sheal
Sorry Jack, I'm not with you, are you talking about GC members? " End Quote

No Sheal I was metaph metaf metaffkkr saying
that the job would be more complex, so the builder would put one of his better brickies on it, Thus a better job done

Jack McH

 

Right, I've gotcha Zigs! Although my dad was not a builder he had a great knowledge of most things having a technical brain and was a master of them too. He believed that you should never fill a cavity wall with insulation as the air needs to circulate and the filling would create a 'bridge' for damp from one wall to another.

He started life as a plasterer which included marquetry as well. Later qualified as a mechanical engineer and two years before retirement was training apprentices in all trades for a Shell refinery, who he worked for most of his adult life. He designed built and installed the central heating system for the above house, he built the boiler as well. He had so many talents for one man and could lay his hand to just about anything.

 

I'm with you now. Yes you are probably right about a better brickie being put on the job. These days they probably wouldn't know what 'turned' brick meant and I shouldn't think it's used anymore because of the expense. It'd be interesting to put this question to Folly Mon when he's finished his bricklaying course. Ooooo, that's mean of me!

 

More news on the Great Crack. Being slightly paranoid about it, I've been looking for more. So far, thankfully, i've found nothing more alarming on my house.

However, on the way back from the shops just now, I noticed that the house next door has a great crack in it. Her's is over the main downstairs window. I also noticed that her house has been fully re-pointed with modern type cement.

Should I be worried? Surely if the houses were going to suffer subsidence, they'd have done so before now, and in any case, land doesn't get any flatter than round here. Redcar is about the most two dimensional town I know. There is only one small hill, a gradient of about 1:10 over about 30 yards. It is called Hill street. Its nowhere near us, so theoretically our houses have got nowhere to slide to.

 

All buildings move, no matter what they are built on. In the summer they expand & contract in the winter. A gale will move a building, after all, an area the size of a house is enough to power a sailing ship.

Lime mortar is self healing, you get minor cracking as the building moves, but as rain soaks in & evaporates out, it takes calcium carbonate with it, re depositing it and helping to seal the cracks again.

Cement is rigid, Brittle and mainly impervious, so when it cracks, it stays cracked, water gets in & stays behind it, then comes the freeze thaw action, hoiking it out.

Is the crack above your neighbours window like an A shape?

 

Silly me, let me know the house number & i'll have a look

 

I didn't realise lime mortar was self healing, but it makes sense. It also explains why some very old houses have noticeably warped walls yet no cracks

The crack in the neighbour's house extends about 5 rows of bricks upwards, at an angle, again its the mortar between the bricks and not the bricks themselves that's cracked.

To be honest, I'm probably more worried for the neighbour than for me. The crack in my house sits on top of more brick wall. The one in her wall sits on top of the window frame, and they are big wide windows. I remember hearing something a few years ago about houses that had been modernised with uPVC windows, and the window people, not really knowing what they were doing, were taking out great massive wooden beams that they thought were just the old window frames but were actually holding the walls up, and replacing them with feeble plastic frames, causing the houses to crack over time.

 

Its not obvious from Google Street view, but it may have happened since that was taken. From the drip tray thats visible I would imagine there is a modern lintel in behind.

Just looked for a pic of Langport but couldn't find one that shows the problem, will take one when I go up there next.

The main street is very straight, from the bottom of the hill to the tidal river.

The Romans built a bridge from the hill to reach the river, thru what was swampland.

The houses on the main road are built with their fronts on the now burried bridge, but the backs of the houses are built over the swamp. Most of the older houses lean back away from the road at quite an angle, yet being built of lime they are all still standing.

We were in the vets waiting room there last week, noticed the internal wall was 2 inches out of plumb from floor to ceiling

 

There's a pub in Sheffield that's all crooked. Most of Sheffield as it is today was built post war, on account of the fact that Sheffield, being a major steel city, was bombed to bits. However one pub survived intact, and the sign over the door proudly announces that its the oldest pub in Sheffield, dating back to the 1700s (can't remember the exact year).

You duck to go in, otherwise you bang your head of the door frame that probably hasn't been horizontal for decades or even centuries, and the whole place looks like its been melting, it is just so crooked, yet it still stands.

 

Is it Timber Framed?

 

Guess it is

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/pubs-bars-national/old-queens-head-sheffield/1064411/

 

Even older than I thought then. I must have remember the sign wrong. That article suggests its at least 200 years older than I thought.

 

Here's a better pic showing how 'melted' it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Queenshead01.jpg

 

Cool

Looks like i'm off to Glastonbury in a bit, will stop off at Langport, put the hi vis on & stand in the middle of the road to get a pic. If i'm not back on later, the bus got me.

 

Didn't think about the fact it would be dark by the time I got to Langport I hate these short days.