i have just purchased a semi circa 1870, its in good shape apart from some heavy decorating to be done. The joining semi has a nice bay window, as do most of the houses in the road. Speaking to some of the older residents, the previous owner actually removed the bay and replaced with a flat window. All the double glazing needs to be replaced, so my question is, does anybody have any ideas what kind of work would be involved in putting back the bay?
thanks
Probably done because a new flat window is an awful lot cheaper than a new bay window!
What do you mean..."what kind of work would be involved in putting back the bay?"
If you look at the neighbours bay you will see what kind of work is involed ie laying a course foundation,laying a course of brickwork on the foundation,constructing pillars(columns)if any? then choosing the bay roof to suit. Surely it can't be that hard?
The work involved would be basically: build a new bay window.
-- JJ
============================== A bit more information would help. Is the bay (in adjoining semi / bay to be restored) a 'walk-in' bay or a 'cantilevered' bay? Is it upstairs or downstairs?
Cic.
Bays of that age often failed, and fell to pieces. Bays with brickwork arches are prime candidates -- the brick arches push the corners out and slowly collapse, particularly square bays. If you live in an area where bombing took place in WWII, then it may have been lost in a bombing raid. Due to the inherent weakness of some bays as above, a bomb which landed far enough away not to cause any other damage to a house sometimes caused such bays to collapse or become unsafe and require pulling down. Besides collapsing arches, bays often had much less adequate foundations than the rest of the house, causing them to move and come away. Bays became unfasionable and with materials in short supply, they were often not replaced like-for-like.
A neighbour recently fitted a bay window, copying mine which was same style 1900 house. His was built as a corner shop and never had the bay in the first place. By the time the bay wall had been built to modern building standards (cavity and insulation), there's very little space in the bay compared with the original ones. OP might want to consider this and use an alternative wall construction, such as single skin brick and timber frame with insulation, to keep wall thickness down.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.