Wooden Lintel shrunk?

[b1gdeano]

Hi

We recently moved into a traditional 1930s detached property which was empty and unheated for over 5 years, and doesnt seem to have had any maintainance done since early 2000 at best. Roof was replaced by the previous owner, badly, which is getting replaced next week as its not watertight. There was evidence of water staining on the roof around where these cracks form from the coving, if that has any bearing on anything.

The walls and ceiling of the hall upstairs and downstairs is artex (asbestos free) and in prep for getting the walls and ceiling skimmed over I decided to remove the artex freom the ceilings as it was in bad shape and cracked/peeling in places. This lead me to find a fair sized (3mm wide and tapering down) crack in the ceiling which they had just covered up before artexing. This I am not too concerned about but it did get me to thinking more about the various cracks around a window in the exterior wall opposite - I had them down as just expansion cracks due to house being empty cold and damp - no idea how long they actually have been there.

Anyway - I decided to remove the plaster from one corner of the window where it was slightly proud and cracked, taking it that it had debonded, and discovered a wooden lintel with gaps between it and the course of bricks above! Could this just be down to wood shrinkage over the years? Is it something I should be concerned about, or should I just get it replastered and forget about it? Directly over the window gap seems to be plasterboard rather than the plaster for the rest of the wall - assuming this was done at some point after? Maybe when windows were replaced to upvc?

Exterior wall shows no evidence of cracking or any other damage, it was only the interior wall that had cracks on it. The house does have a cavity, so is one outer and one inner wall.

Attached a couple of pics

Hopefully I can get a steer on things from here

Thanks in advance

 

[foxhole]

Timber will always have movement, nothing to worry about , having previously owned a 30’s property I know they were often thrown up quickly and now show their age with crumbling brickwork and some shoddy design elements . Just make sure roof is done well , may need replacement timbers .

 

[b1gdeano]

Timber will always have movement, nothing to worry about , having previously owned a 30’s property I know they were often thrown up quickly and now show their age with crumbling brickwork and some shoddy design elements . Just make sure roof is done well , may need replacement timbers .

Thanks

I would imagine all the other windows also have timber lintel on the inner wall, but none have cracks on the plasterwork other than this wall, but then Im not 100% its anything to do with the lintel but rather movement of the joists in the loft above when it was boarded up or just over the years

The timber of the lintel itself looks good what I can see, dry and not rotten. Brickwork itself is solid, cant drill into them most the time they just either break the bit or just spin them till they blunt. Morter work on the inner walls does leave a lot to be desired though when you get the plaster off in places! But even then its usually solid stuff. Our previous 30s semi was a much, lets say, cheaper build. interior walls were made of a black almost tarmac like stuff not brick and nothing was square, and the bay window was far less robust than this one.

I guess im just expecting the worst now as since moving in one job leads to three and usually expensive. As mentioned, whatever maintainance was done was done poorly by cowboys that I am finding and rectifying.

As for the roof, been up in the loft a number of times and the timbers themselves seem ok, its the battens and tiles & felt that arent. Whoever did it before extended the gauge too far, so overlap is too small and get water coming in over the tiles, running down the felt or into the loft. Had to get the chimneys all sorted first week of moving in as they were pouring in down the walls, but decided to just do the lot as its just been bodged. I trust the roofer enough that if he spots something needed he will say and get it fixed, not just bodge or ignore

Regarding this lintel thing - is it worth trying to fill the gap between wood and brickwork or just leave it and get it plastered over?

 

[foxhole]

Easy fix is a tube of resin mortar, (cement will wet the dry timber again)

 

[opps]

Brickwork itself is solid, cant drill into them most the time they just either break the bit or just spin them till they blunt.

You need a SDS drill. It fires the drill bit forward as it spins.

With one you should find that you can drill a 7mm by 50mm deep hole in less than 10 seconds.

SDS Drills | Hammer Drills | Drills | Screwfix