I turned up this picture during a web search, and would like to identify the author to obtain permission to use it (with attribution, of course, and a link if desired) in an article for my web site:
The link is http://www.nachi.org/bbsystem/usrimages/P/PA190077.JPG
Thanks.
What do you think caused that issue Michael?
I think frost when water freezes it generates 25,000 lb per sq inch.
In order for a 1/2 pipe to stand the pressure it needs a 2 inch wall .
Awesome
Looks to me like a lintel installed above a plugged through-wall AC opening expanded and lifted the sill. Hopefully, the OP will show up and tell us.
The lentil is put in place to act as a weight to stop or to slow down brick movement on window openings.
The area should have been maintenanced years ago.
>The cause is from frost.
The frost is caused by the migration of humid air into the wall cavity ,during below freezing weather and the vapors turn to frost…
The air is carried into the opening ( a crack,unfinished masonry joint , caulking that shrank,or what ever) between the walls and the warn side acauses draftup the wall and the cold side ( brick)attracts the vapors and turns it to frost.
Also there is a flaw in the brick style.
There is a ladder pattern just below the window with a stretcher bond above only 2 courses high with the lentil on top.
More room for movement in the brickwork if there is a problem.
And there was.
That was my first thought.
On closer look the ac unit in the window is a custom skinny unit made for casement windows that I personally refer to as Florida windows because they lack proper sealing methods with only one latch in the middle.
I am also noticing that the co axial cable is going through the window.
Lots of possible water intrusion going on in what may be a CHA or project building.
That’s not a lintel. Lintels in brick walls are steel angle installed above windows. Their purpose is to transfer the structural load that would otherwise have been carried by the brick in the opening.
That is a buckling of brick a couple of courses below the window sill. I don’t know what caused it.
That’s not a lintel. Lintels in brick walls are steel angle installed above windows. Their purpose is to transfer the structural load that would otherwise have been carried by the brick in the opening.
That is a buckling of brick a couple of courses below the window sill. I don’t know what caused it.
What’s an “OP”?
Looks like a solid brick building, windows were filled in with brick veneer , And has just collapsed or shifted.
Other People
A lintel does not have to span a window or door, it can be placed above any type of horizontal opening to support the load above, for example at a through-wall penetration for a sleeve type air conditioner.
This picture turned up as a result of a GOOGLE for “deteriorated lintel”, and at least when viewed initially the damage is consistent with the appearance of damage caused by oxide jacking at a lintel left in place when a fill-in was performed (see the enlarged image, which shows what looks - to me, anyway - suspiciously like a corroded and expanded lintel immediately below the lifted masonry and sill).
Freeze-thaw jacking is is being proposed as an alternative explanation - I’m hoping someone will hunt up the original thread so that we have a definitive cause.
“OP” = Original Poster.
Thanks for catching that. Its not a lentil its a sill.
Sorry I just came home from Thanks-giving supper dinner with my mother and was tired
.
Its a (‘’ SILL’’ A ‘‘WINDOW SILL’’) sorry,not a lentil.
Look at the ladder stack brick and notice the stretcher course above it -WERE THEY MEET–the bond is broken on 2 courses. stretcher bond and ladder bond have 2 common but joints meeting plumb.
A weakened area.
Bricks have a bond to make them strong. Flemish bond ,Irish bond, Stretchier bond, the way the bricks are laid in a course running horizontally.
Dam I will learn to take picture out of here and show you guys what I mean one day by drawing on it and then put it back, but not now.
Breaking a bond weakens the jointing and now you see what happens.
Follow the butt ends (end of brick) joints see how they are staggered.
Like in flooring and dry-wall placement.
They must not be stacked on top of each other like in the ‘‘ladder stack’’ brick
on top of each other perfectly parallel and horizontally.
Ladder stack bond is the weakest bond in brick-laying.
Place the stretchers and just 2 courses on top of that ( ladder stack element ) above ,and by placing it below a window element or ANY opening of the wall.
Presto a perfect place for a problem to arise.
AND IT DID.
I’m referring to the location below the still and lifted masonry:
BTW,
This is a lentil:
This is a lintel:
I have tried 3 times and I am having problem with my PC.
I will get back later before I through this sh-t in the garbage.
3000 computer nothing but a pain in the asssssssssss.
every one excause me but this computer is going off line till fixed.
Thank you! I was beginning to think it was just me… :mrgreen:
Kenton the boxed area of brick was an opening for an A/C sleeve at one time.
That opening was bricked up but the lintel would have been left in place.
Reread my post above yours as I am positive that my diagnosis is correct.
I have worked this type building most of my life and the open window for a coaxial cable combined with a poor angled install of a casement unit would cause water intrusion into the old lintel at that opening.
Look up CHA building and you will understand how and why it would be left that way.
Here we go I am on my laptop and its OK. I just got it out of maintenance.
OK. You have marked out the problem area very well.
underneath the top 2 courses ( common bond-or stretcher bond course) as I was taught.
Under that is a ladder bond course. Brick staked on top of each other perfectly plumb and level. A visual element for a break in the pattern, monotone visual.
By placing these 2 elements under the window opening and not having the common, stretcher bond go further up say by 6 more courses,or any opening for that matter.
You leave a weak link to the brick bonding were a possible break in the masonry will fail under pressure.
Now frost has entered the cavity in between the wood framing and the veneered exterior ( brick in this case.)
It is usually 2 inches wide.
The weather enters a gap. caused by caulking failure around windows, brick movement ( expansion or contraction ) leaving a crack in the bed joint, during the seasons, a mechanical device that had been applied wrong leaving a hole, etc.
The end is an opening for weather to enter.
The weather is normally is forced up the walls cavity from the heated interior with the out side being cooler and acts like a chimney drawing air up.
The cold surface of the brick attracts the moisture in the humid air causing frost to build up.
this process repeats itself over and over again during the winter.
Frost melts only to buildup again during the next cold snap.
The frost exerts pressures in all directions and the load is moved to the easiest direction.
That appears to be up in this case.
I stress to home owners to caulk windows for this very reason.To me its the weakest link in the chain on a veneered wall.
I am stating this through observation and years of repairs, 34 years to be exact.
I might be wrong in my explanation and observations and would love to have seen the whole home and brick veneer to come to a more sustained conclusion.
I hope you understood my explanition.
I hope I made sense.
I am truly not here to argue but to state my conclusions upon visual observation from the pictures BOB.
Look at the brick.
They have the same battina ( color and age)and to me were there to address the visual blandness from that color and style of brick on the wall.
To give it more 2d two dimensional effect. Shadowing and composition.
Not to close off an area that was once a opening.
It is common practice well turn of the century to about 1970 for it is time consuming and adds a extra cost to a job to say the least.
Brick-layers loved there trade and added Rich design to there work.
Its a dieing art and I have almost closed my business due to the lack of qualified trades men.
