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[Chief]

Chip,

Thanks for your input. I agree about masonry products cracking, and I have no problem with hairline cracks. The problem here is not the crack, but the subsequent movement. The brick veneer around, and to the right of, the window has rotated CW. There is a 1/2" gap at the upper left of the bathroom window and a downward deflection of the lintel in the middle of the span across the garage door. The vertical corner over the garage door has shifted left-to-right enough to pop the miter joint in the trim. There is another crack / gap about 1/4" in width in the window sill about 3 bricks from the left. The crack travels from there downward towards the column, which is acting as the pivot point for the above noted rotation.

The gap between the brick and the lintel is at the outer edge of the lintel, and appears to be because the lintel has either tilted forward, or the included angle has increased to more than the initial 90 degrees caused by the deformation.

While I am not overly concerned that it is going to fall down while we are away, I am looking to address the problem with additional structure to increase the factor of safety of the design to 2.0.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you,

Chuck

[Chief]

Chip I see it the same wat you do. Every job we do with veneer there is cracking bin the mortar joints. Wood moves with humidity and seasonal changes,stone and mortar don't. The lintel as all have said is not sufficient enough to hold the weight of the brick above hence the bow(like you have also said). Is the house safe,yes its safe its only settling but if you look at the pics it seems the whole section above the garage door is pulling as one mass to the right and thats why the cracks are following themselves to the weakest point in a zig zag from the weakest point. Once a grout line goes and you get the mass moving its like a fault line and it follows to the next weakest grout joint until it alleviates the pressure on it.With the amount of weight on that lintel(i.e. the floor above)It should have been either a steel I or channel that was posted to the foundation enough to carry the load on its own ,not a typical lintel installation of sitting it on the brick and lagging it to the header. But construction practices are different everywhere. Here we have hurricane engineering ,and snow loads to deal with so we tend to over engineer. I in my business use structural engineer for all my load calcs and steel drawings.So in conclusion, I think Chief is not in any immenent danger but it will continue to sag and the mortar joints where the cracks are will still get larger until its properly supported.Also you noted the space between the brick and the lintel with out actually seeing it first hand the gap you see may be the steel rolling forward becaues of the weight on it and the sag it is forming.There is no way to tell in that pic. Also brick ties may be strong but they aren't going to hold brick lateraly with out sag. My .02  Later,Q

Thanks John.

Your comment on the lintel gap is the same as mine. The gap is wedge shaped, not one with parallel sides.

Chuck

[SBB]

OK

I understand B/Daddy's point and yours also Chuck!

I learned a long time ago that as the person that's paying the bills I'm the one people go after. But in court my opinions mean nothing. It's only the guys (or girls) that have the stamp or seal that are willing to write the letter or testify that the court believes.

So Chuck don't sweat much but follow up with the builder when you get back.
If they blow you off call your insurance company and put them on notice as to your concern.
Eventually someone will engage the services of a licensed and state approved engineer to make an assesment of the issue!

Good luck!

 

[Chief]

OK

I understand B/Daddy's point and yours also Chuck!

I learned a long time ago that as the person that's paying the bills I'm the one people go after. But in court my opinions mean nothing. It's only the guys (or girls) that have the stamp or seal that are willing to write the letter or testify that the court believes.

So Chuck don't sweat much but follow up with the builder when you get back.
If they blow you off call your insurance company and put them on notice as to your concern.
Eventually someone will engage the services of a licensed and state approved engineer to make an assesment of the issue!

Good luck!

 

Chip,

I'm not after anyone. I'm just not like that. I did try to contact the builder, but I'm getting a feeling he's nowhere to be found. I don't think it should be too terribly expensive (famous last words). I just want to get it taken care of. I only want to do it once, and make sure its done right.

I'm sure this isn't going to be my last post on the subject. Part of this was a vent the other was a knowledge search.

Hopefully no chrome will need to be sold to pay for repairs.

[The Mysterious Q!]

I agree Chip get a qualified structural engineer to look at it and when he makes his assessment then bring his findings to your builder and go from there. Later,Q 

[SBB]

Chip,

I'm not after anyone. I'm just not like that. I did try to contact the builder, but I'm getting a feeling he's nowhere to be found. I don't think it should be too terribly expensive (famous last words). I just want to get it taken care of. I only want to do it once, and make sure its done right.

I'm sure this isn't going to be my last post on the subject. Part of this was a vent the other was a knowledge search.

Hopefully no chrome will need to be sold to pay for repairs.

Chuck

The builder may be out of business but I would bet the farm his insurance carrier isn't.
And you go after the deep pockets first!

Keep us up on whats happening!

 

[Chief]

Chuck

The builder may be out of business but I would bet the farm his insurance carrier isn't.
And you go after the deep pockets first!

Keep us up on whats happening!

 

Chip,

Thanks for reminding me. How would I find out who his carrier is / was?

[SBB]

Chip,

Thanks for reminding me. How would I find out who his carrier is / was?

Hold on a minute,
Let me ask the smartest woman I know,

Nancy, how would Chuck figure that out?

S
  /
    B

[Hoist!]

It appeared to me, as I mentioned yesterday to you, that pointing the facde would probably suffice. I would have a SE look at it and make recommendations to the garage lintel situation. A simple fix for that, although not ideal, would be to add a column to the center of the lintel, and shim it so it can not sag further or even try to jack it up a little. But definitely get an SE to check it, in case this turns ugly with the builder/insurance company. Good luck Chief. Hoist!

[reo]

Sorry to see what happened to your house Cheif. Now I can see your going to get all kinds of help here and I don't want to confuse you with your head spinning in anger. From my experience of being gc on my last two houses I can only suggest not doing anything to modify what happened to your house till you find out if you have any recourse. I had a garage many years ago look much worst than that before it got dangerous and I'm not saying it is not dangerous at this point but if you even jack up that sill above the garage you could change the outcome of a possible litigation. Every state is different in how builders have to be bonded, but usually every sub needs a permit and has to prove being bonded before getting a permit. I would ask who was the general contractor building your house or did you just buy from a developer. Your town/city my have a building commissioner, start with him. There may have been requirements that had to be followed from the house plan that the architecture drew up. Also there might have been regular sign offs on each phase of the building process that would have to be checked by city/town inspectors.

The bottom line is I wouldn't want to see you overlook someone who obviously was responsible and might still be liable for a mistake that caused your current problem.

Roy.....

[Chief]

Sorry to see what happened to your house Cheif. Now I can see your going to get all kinds of help here and I don't want to confuse you with your head spinning in anger. From my experience of being gc on my last two houses I can only suggest not doing anything to modify what happened to your house till you find out if you have any recourse. I had a garage many years ago look much worst than that before it got dangerous and I'm not saying it is not dangerous at this point but if you even jack up that sill above the garage you could change the outcome of a possible litigation. Every state is different in how builders have to be bonded, but usually every sub needs a permit and has to prove being bonded before getting a permit. I would ask who was the general contractor building your house or did you just buy from a developer. Your town/city my have a building commissioner, start with him. There may have been requirements that had to be followed from the house plan that the architecture drew up. Also there might have been regular sign offs on each phase of the building process that would have to be checked by city/town inspectors.

The bottom line is I wouldn't want to see you overlook someone who obviously was responsible and might still be liable for a mistake that caused your current problem.

Roy.....

Thanks Roy. The house was a spec home which we bought directly from the builder. So far, no luck in getting in contact with him. He was a small operation, building one house at a time. We found the house finished, so never had any opportunity to watch the progress, not that it would have done any good.

I'll look to get some professional analysis next week.

Thanks for everyone's ideas.

Chuck

[HogBreath]

This is off topic some I guess. Oh, well, continue to look over me and my posts. I pour a lot of concrete slabs in my business. 6,000 SF to 40,000 SF all at one time. Time after time I have customers ask me, "Do you guarantee it won't crack?" To which I reply, "No, I guarantee you it WILL crack."

On a concrete slab 400' long it will crack every 20-25 feet. I use sawed joints to try and control the cracks so it's a straight crack. It's no mors tructurally sound that a crooked crack, it's simply more pleasing to the eye. At least it will appear like I know what I'm doing.

My point, concrete products crack. Bricks and mortar joints will crack. It's caused from shrinkage. I always wondered why they called it expansion joints?

[Chief]

This is off topic some I guess. Oh, well, continue to look over me and my posts. I pour a lot of concrete slabs in my business. 6,000 SF to 40,000 SF all at one time. Time after time I have customers ask me, "Do you guarantee it won't crack?" To which I reply, "No, I guarantee you it WILL crack."

On a concrete slab 400' long it will crack every 20-25 feet. I use sawed joints to try and control the cracks so it's a straight crack. It's no mors tructurally sound that a crooked crack, it's simply more pleasing to the eye. At least it will appear like I know what I'm doing.

My point, concrete products crack. Bricks and mortar joints will crack. It's caused from shrinkage. I always wondered why they called it expansion joints?

Ken,

I'm ok with the crack, it's the 1/2" gap that gets me going. Notice the big gap upper-left of the window, and the smaller crack on the left side of the sill. This whole piece has rotated slightly about a point down and to the left.

I can't imagine it will stop before doing some major damage as it continues to bow the lintel. I hope it turns out to be as simple as something like the lintel coming loose from the header. I think that should be fairly easy to remedy.

[iski]

Thanks Roy. The house was a spec home which we bought directly from the builder. So far, no luck in getting in contact with him. He was a small operation, building one house at a time. We found the house finished, so never had any opportunity to watch the progress, not that it would have done any good.

I'll look to get some professional analysis next week.

Thanks for everyone's ideas.

Chuck

Read the thread - you have tons of great advice already.  You are taking the best course - professional advice.  Might check with more than one company for comparison purposes.

[reo]

Thanks Roy. The house was a spec home which we bought directly from the builder. So far, no luck in getting in contact with him. He was a small operation, building one house at a time. We found the house finished, so never had any opportunity to watch the progress, not that it would have done any good.

I'll look to get some professional analysis next week.

Thanks for everyone's ideas.

Chuck

Good luck Chuck,

I would love to know the spec on the lintel that was put in place, the architect would have listed the spec for the steel to be ordered (length, width and thickness) on the blueprint and the general contractor would have ordered the steel. The brick guy just uses whats there.

Roy.....