Loose Brick Wall?

I recently was asked to investigate what I thought was brick veneer damage on a small apartment building. My thoughts as I approached the building were "the bricks must have pulled away from the building because of poor use of the brick ties". I had seen this on another small apartment building that was built without brick ties and thought that the bad practice might be more common than I thought.

The adjuster sent me some photos of the building showing 1 to 2 inch gaps above the windows (see photo). At first glance, it looked like the brick veneer wall was leaning away from the building as others had suggested. However, upon closer examination, I noticed that the gaps were only at the top of the windows (see photo). If the brick wall was leaning away from the window there would be gaps all around the windows. If the brick wall was leaning away from the building there would be cracks in the wall separating the displaced parts from the well attached parts. This was not the case.

1 to 2 inch gaps at the top of the windows.

The photo below shows a larger portion of the building showing that most of the wall was in tact. It was not crumbling to pieces but most of the windows had a gap at the top.

Back side of brick veneer apartment building.

This was quite puzzling because of my pre-conceived notion that the brick veneer wall must be falling away from the building. I got the opportunity to view the building after the brick veneer was removed. I eventually started to understand the situation better.

Brick removed.

There were plenty of brick ties but the wood sill plates were water damaged and appeared to have been wet for long periods. The sill plates were crushed hard against the block foundation wall (see photo).

Water damaged wood sill plate

The wood framed parts of the building had settled downward while the brick wall remained in place. The brick veneer wall was well made and held up well over the years but the wood framed inner wall must have been wet for long periods which made it to settle down separately from the brick.

Clogged gutter

After I saw the water damaged sill plates I saw that the gutters were clogged with debris. At least one of the water sources was likely from water overflowing the gutters and running down between the brick veneer and the wood framed wall.

Conclusion: Don't be persuaded to follow pre-conceived notions about cause of loss. Be willing to consider other possibilities.