iSelfBuild Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 Hello, Just looked at a property for investment and there is a large crack in the rear. I have highlighted it in Orange. There is a cellar at the property which is in great condition! What would people say is the culprit, could it be a leaking drain causing settlement? I spotted there has been two holes drilled in the crack so someones had a camera perhaps in there at some point. Think I might have to get one of those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue B Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 This is a picture of our last house that we bought with subsidence and an insurance claim that went with it. The insurers paid out the cost of underpinning, we knocked it down and put the money towards rebuilding. We struggled to get a mortgage on the house even with the insurance claim. This was in 2005 prior to rules on mortgages being tightened up. A photo cannot tell you what is causing the crack unfortunately. It could be poor foundations, poor ground, tree roots (or the result of tree roots decomposing after a tree has been chopped down). In our case it was poor ground with a variety of different foundations that led to the building moving. In addition, they had built up into the loft, and I think that probably made the situation worse. The final straw was environment agency flood risk work that lowered the water table quite dramatically. The clay soil reacted badly to this and most houses in the neighbourhood then suffered subsidence. Take care with structural engineer advice though. Our neighbours were told their problems were caused by a tree next to their property. Hubby is a horticulturalist by trade and knew that the tree had roots that could not possibly have caused their issues. When confronted with that news, they then got a complete rebuild out of their insurance company. A difference of about £150k to us! We were gutted (but pleased for them). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 @iSelfBuild We'll have to change your username to Sarah Beeny at this rate ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 (edited) Not sure if I compeletely agree with @Sue B here. The crack for the OP looks irregular and quite small, and suspiciously follows from the windowsill and that pipe penetration. Even though your piccie is close, you had to draw a line to help us find it. It matches the grain of the render, not the blocks beneath. I am assuming conventional construction in that comment. Is it in the render, or perhaps a rotten something beneath the window. Check water ingress and when it was actually pebbledashed? Matching the pebbledash will be fun. Whilst the @Sue B crack to is large and squared off / angular, and I would think more likely to follow a fault in the underlying structure. Ferdinand Edited January 8, 2019 by Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue B Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Just to add to this (and why I am so suspicious of structural engineers), our neighbours the other side (you can see the house in the background of the picture) also had their property looked at as they had several cracks all around the property. The cracks were deemed to be superficial and the structural engineers wrote to them to that effect. They patched everything up and sold up and moved on. Two years down the road, the new neighbours started suffering from more cracks and the internal floor level changing. The original insurers then paid out for a complete rebuild as luckily the first owners had kept the letter confirming no structural issues with the house. Their cracks looked no different to the ones shown by the OP. What I am saying is, a photo cannot tell you definitively what is going on with the house. The only way to determine if there is a problem, is monitoring over time, measuring pins at various points around the house to determine if there is still movement. We could see a history of our house moving over a period of 3 years. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Punter Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 It is worth checking the soil type. If it is clay it could be heave / shrink caused by drying or saturation changing the volume. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottishjohn Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 (edited) looks more like the pebble dash has come loose - tap it with handle of a screw driver or something all over if it sounds hollow in places--then thats your answer strip off and rerender looks like ex-council house --most of them in DG have needed re -render by now looking how little window ledge sticks out of render --that would suggest someone has already put another coat on without removing original . which is what council would do -- penny pinching down there is no drip check as far as i can see --so that will make more likely to have water behind it-maybe even some damp on inside--all fixable Edited January 8, 2019 by scottishjohn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottishjohn Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 8 hours ago, Sue B said: This is a picture of our last house that we bought with subsidence and an insurance claim that went with it. The insurers paid out the cost of underpinning, we knocked it down and put the money towards rebuilding. We struggled to get a mortgage on the house even with the insurance claim. This was in 2005 prior to rules on mortgages being tightened up. A photo cannot tell you what is causing the crack unfortunately. It could be poor foundations, poor ground, tree roots (or the result of tree roots decomposing after a tree has been chopped down). In our case it was poor ground with a variety of different foundations that led to the building moving. In addition, they had built up into the loft, and I think that probably made the situation worse. The final straw was environment agency flood risk work that lowered the water table quite dramatically. The clay soil reacted badly to this and most houses in the neighbourhood then suffered subsidence. Take care with structural engineer advice though. Our neighbours were told their problems were caused by a tree next to their property. Hubby is a horticulturalist by trade and knew that the tree had roots that could not possibly have caused their issues. When confronted with that news, they then got a complete rebuild out of their insurance company. A difference of about £150k to us! We were gutted (but pleased for them). a good story for all to take notice of don,t skimp with foundations or weld mesh in them if any doubt on sub soil , also looks like age of house where no expansion joints required Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 10 hours ago, Sue B said: This is a picture of our last house I read that as "this is the spitting image of our last house" rather than "the photo below is a picture of our last house". Apols if I have slightly misinterpreted what @Sue B meant, by my assumption that a comparison was being made. F Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 The obvious questions have to be does the render sound loose or blown either side of the crack? Are there corresponding cracks on the plaster on the inside? and if you can see the often bare courses of brick at ground level below the pebbledash, are there any signs or movement, cracks or steps in those? That window cill does not seem to stick out much or have a drip bead, so chances are water is getting in behind the render. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iSelfBuild Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 20 hours ago, Nickfromwales said: @iSelfBuild We'll have to change your username to Sarah Beeny at this rate ! One day Well my offer was not accepted. I did my sums and worked out the offer at £25k below the current asking price - I would have walked away with a £18-£13k net profit for maybe 4 weeks of work max. Much of the work inside is tidying up cat scratches, few walls re-skimmed, blown glazing replacement, new front door etc, redecoration. She asked for £15k more than I offered so I have walked away and said my offer will stand for 1 week before I tie the money up elsewhere. I might offer an assisted sale if nothing comes up on the horizon in the next week or two. Very interesting points raised in this thread and the small cill projection does look suspicious! Looks like it has been dashed over. There is a few drilled inspection holes in the render for me to get a cavity inspection camera through. I might have a look just for the fun of it. I can't see whats going on inside as all the kitchen units are around that area. I have a vertical crack in my current house which is due to dodgy pebble dashing and a tiny kitchen extensions not being tied into the original brickwork properly, it hasn't opened up for 3 years. I'll be testing my 'masking' skills shortly by injecting colour matched render into the crack (potentially beige fire cement as I got the idea from a tube of that I bought by mistake last week) I expect if I inject it with a fine nozzle and use a dry brush to feather it in it should be hard to notice... failing that it will all need painting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iSelfBuild Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 10 hours ago, ProDave said: The obvious questions have to be does the render sound loose or blown either side of the crack? Are there corresponding cracks on the plaster on the inside? and if you can see the often bare courses of brick at ground level below the pebbledash, are there any signs or movement, cracks or steps in those? That window cill does not seem to stick out much or have a drip bead, so chances are water is getting in behind the render. I will have to have a look at the un-rendered plinth! Makes sense. First thing I did was tapped it. It felt very sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Fill the crack, paint the whole outside (painting pebbledash is a lousy job) and sell on. It will smarten it up and look a lot less drab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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