Bricklaying & Repointing

Cracks in interior wall, crack in exterior render. What is the best way to remedy?

Anonymous user 23/02/2024 - 2.56 PM

We are considering purchasing a house (mid-terraced, 3-bedroom, built in 1901) on which the building survey has indicated a number of issues. The front garden has a medium sized tree which the surveyor believes has caused some historical movement/settlement to the front bay window area of the house. This in turn has resulted in the first floor front bedroom having a number of cracks (some horizontal, some diagonal) in the plasterwork in different parts of the wall and around one of the windows. On the exterior, there is also a thin vertical crack (about 40-50cm long) above the ground floor bay window. The surveyor has suggested that the cracks within the masonry to and around the front bay window of the house would require remedial repairs to restrain further movement by way of restraint bars to the coursing in the brickwork. Additionally, he suggested that repairs are required to the external render around the exterior window opening in order to prevent water permeating into the structure. Is this work that any general builder can do or will we require specialists who are experienced in structural repairs (and, if so, what category do they fall under in MyBuilder?!). Also, what might be a ballpark figure for such repairs (I appreciate this may be like asking how long is a piece of string)? Finally, the survey also mentioned that the front bedroom ceiling has a deflection in one area (about 50cm in length) due to a past roof leak which will require ceiling timbers to be replaced/strengthened - again, what type of builder will we need to hire for this job? Any advice will be much appreciated as we are at a little bit of a loss. UPDATE: Hemis - many thanks for your response which is very clear. When you say "further surveys", what type of surveys do you mean? By a structural engineer? We are based in London and I see that you are located in Portsmouth so I assume the distance would be too far for your company in particular. What would be the best way of finding local building companies that do this type of work? Is this just a case of sifting through search engine results? Many thanks.