Does our wall look structurally sound?

[Spetznaaz]

Hello,

Hopefully this is the right place for this question. So basically we purchased a house (built in the late 60's), had a full structural survey and the walls were described as "good original workmanship" and also a bit contradictory "the pointing is in basic condition" and "the pointing is in poor condition". Fast forward a few months of living here - Turns out our surveyor was useless. Missed Japanese knotweed and numerous other things. After living here and having a good examination of the walls, i would describe them as absolutely terrible original workmanship and borderline needing rebuilding. The joint lines don't match up, bricks are wonky as hell, joint gaps vary from an inch to a few mm, very poor quality bricks, the walls themselves are no where near straight in any direction (whether this was how they were built or wall ties failing i do not know), spalled bricks everywhere and completely loose bricks that can be pulled out (about 3 i've noticed so far). I also noticed on many of them there are tiny white lines / maybe cracks which i'm guessing means they are close to becoming spalled.

The reason for the condition of the walls is imo due to a few factors - Failed cavity wall insulation, house is on side of a mountain, poor quality bricks and absolutely no maintenance.

So my main question is, from the pictures and my description, do these walls looks structurally sound? As in, are they savable or does it look like the outer leaf needs rebuilding?

My plan was to get the insulation removed, replace all the spalled bricks, fix the loose bricks, repoint and then i was wondering about trying some brick stain as i've seen some good result with it. Failing that, rendering would be the next thing i'd consider.

My other question is, is there a surveyor who just deals with walls? I know you get wall tie surveyors (which we may need to do) but who's the expert who can comment on the structural condition of a wall? The CIGA guy who came to look at the cavity wall insulation described it as one of the worst walls he's ever seen and couldn't believe we purchased the house.. but then a random bricklayer said they were okay and solid so i don't know what to believe.

Many Thanks!

Edit - Apologies for all the pictures, i couldn't work out how to have a single link directing to them all.

 

[^woody^]

The walls look ok

 

[oldbutnotdead]

The gable end wall looks fine, no sign of bulging or anything nasty like that. The spalling etc is most likely due to failed pointing, water and frost damage.
I'd question the build date- looks earlier than 60s to me.
Yes you may have wall tie problems again cos of the lack of maintenance (and if the cavity wall insulation is the porous stuff and it's got wet that won't help).
Once you've sorted the known problems, you might want to consider external wall insulation as the final job, certainly on the gable end, possibly on the whole house.

 

[Deleted member 292770]

My plan was to get the insulation removed, replace all the spalled bricks, fix the loose bricks, repoint

this.

 

[cdbe]

EWI for me. I presume you then also wouldn't need to remove the CWI.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

EWI for me. I presume you then also wouldn't need to remove the CWI.

Mmm good point, ewi will keep the wet off the outer skin so winner winner

 

[Spetznaaz]

Thanks for the replies guys.

The gable end wall looks fine, no sign of bulging or anything nasty like that. The spalling etc is most likely due to failed pointing, water and frost damage.
I'd question the build date- looks earlier than 60s to me.
Yes you may have wall tie problems again cos of the lack of maintenance (and if the cavity wall insulation is the porous stuff and it's got wet that won't help).
Once you've sorted the known problems, you might want to consider external wall insulation as the final job, certainly on the gable end, possibly on the whole house.

That's good to know regarding the gable end. Yeah i have a feeling the wall ties are not going to look good as the internal walls are soaking wet when it rains. I considered the external insulation but personally can't stand the stuff, i think it makes houses look cheap.

 

[phatboy]

Thanks for the replies guys.



That's good to know regarding the gable end. Yeah i have a feeling the wall ties are not going to look good as the internal walls are soaking wet when it rains. I considered the external insulation but personally can't stand the stuff, i think it makes houses look cheap.

But it looks like a rendered house? Or you can attach brick slips or whatever.

 

[Spetznaaz]

But it looks like a rendered house? Or you can attach brick slips or whatever.

To be honest i've only ever seen it in pebble dash, which i hate but you can instantly tell that it's not a normal render and is in fact insulation. I shall look more into it. Brick slips are something else i was looking into, they do look quite good from what i have seen.

 

[phatboy]

To be honest i've only ever seen it in pebble dash, which i hate but you can instantly tell that it's not a normal render and is in fact insulation. I shall look more into it. Brick slips are something else i was looking into, they do look quite good from what i have seen.

I've honestly never seen EWI pebbledashed! It's actually a good way to hide the hideous pebbledash....

 

[biryani_boy]

Repoint and replace a few bricks, wall is ok otherwise

 

[Gerrydelasel]

Did you not view the house yourself before buying?

 

[Spetznaaz]

Did you not view the house yourself before buying?

Of course we did. For one thing, when looking around a house with an estate agent breathing down your neck it is easy to miss things. I noticed the walls didn't look the best but obviously didn't realise just how bad they were but we loved the house and that is what a full structural survey is for. When the survey told me they are fine and will be standing in another 100 years, i believed him.

 

[catlad]

Guttering needs to be extended, once you have sorted the pointing you could apply storm dry.