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Hi folks,
I'll preface the post by saying that I'm about 90% sure I'm going to be contacting a structural engineer in the next couple of days but I thought I'd check in here in case someone experienced can shed some light on this - I might be in a panic over nothing.
Context of what I'm doing
I'm adding some SWIP IWI to this 1930s solid brick bay window wall (rest of the house is an older style cavity wall). The lower half was just covered with wood panel, and for some odd reason a strip up the sides also. The rest was in what I think is gypsum (pinkish) plaster. So I started hacking away at it to make the surface true with the brick prior to framing the battens to hold the insulation.
However as I started to remove the plaster I started to find some wobbly bricks, then some considerable gaps and finally as I started doing the bigger 2m window, the interior lintel started to crumble apart, exposing some (or the only?) rebar run.
The external lintels look solid, no crack/settlement signs anyway.
My questions for you fine people
1. Is the internal lintel structural? I would assume so, hence the rebar.
2. Are the internal lintels meant to be supported by those wobbly bricks? Or is the load being spread on to the external brick course (which looks solid along with the external lintel)
2. Is this amount of crumbling normal? Or can I expect the structural engineer to confirm the worse ... (replace them)
3. If the crumbling is not that bad and I can expect to repair it, what would be the process/material of reinstating the bits that crumbled?
Any comments/thoughts on any of these greatly appreciated!
Cheers
I'll preface the post by saying that I'm about 90% sure I'm going to be contacting a structural engineer in the next couple of days but I thought I'd check in here in case someone experienced can shed some light on this - I might be in a panic over nothing.
Context of what I'm doing
I'm adding some SWIP IWI to this 1930s solid brick bay window wall (rest of the house is an older style cavity wall). The lower half was just covered with wood panel, and for some odd reason a strip up the sides also. The rest was in what I think is gypsum (pinkish) plaster. So I started hacking away at it to make the surface true with the brick prior to framing the battens to hold the insulation.
However as I started to remove the plaster I started to find some wobbly bricks, then some considerable gaps and finally as I started doing the bigger 2m window, the interior lintel started to crumble apart, exposing some (or the only?) rebar run.
The external lintels look solid, no crack/settlement signs anyway.
My questions for you fine people
1. Is the internal lintel structural? I would assume so, hence the rebar.
2. Are the internal lintels meant to be supported by those wobbly bricks? Or is the load being spread on to the external brick course (which looks solid along with the external lintel)
2. Is this amount of crumbling normal? Or can I expect the structural engineer to confirm the worse ... (replace them)
3. If the crumbling is not that bad and I can expect to repair it, what would be the process/material of reinstating the bits that crumbled?
Any comments/thoughts on any of these greatly appreciated!
Cheers
