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.
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.
