Are they causing cracks?

Wkdwill

Hi

Im just wondering what other peoples thoughts on our situation are and if this is in the wrong place please feel free to move it for me.

We are in an end terraced council property, the house next door (not part of the terrace), is only joined to ours by the front corner wall (IYKWIM) and beyond the side exterior of our property is there back garden.

They recently began digging out foundations for the new extension they are building and since doing this we are developing cracks in ours walls, mainly upstairs and where the wall meets the ceiling, also in our bedroom where the chimney wall meets the ceiling.

I know they recently wrote to the council to inform them that they were digging within 3 meters of our property, but as there was already a 3rd party wall agreement (before we moved in and no idea what this is) and the fact we have a cellar it shouldn't affect us, but the cellar is under the living room which is to the rear of the property and as far as im aware there are only digging by the front of our property, I think I was told that they had reached the concrete at the base of the front of our house but as we cant see past that wall we have no idea as to where or how close they are actually digging.

I think I will be deffinately informing the council about the cracks though, the digging must be very close as the people who live next door but one to us (the other end of the terrace) can feel and hear it too, as it vibrates through all our properties.

Im a worrier and cant help but think the worse.

Doozergirl

Foundations aren't that deep that they shoud affect your house to it's detriment. Are you sure they weren't there before?

Mark the end of the crack with a pencil and watch for growth but I would say in general that if the crack is where wall meets ceiling etc then its a very natural pressure point and if any movement, settlement or shrinkage occurs then that is where it shows. More sinister movement will show in places such as in the middle of a flat wall - you wouldn't expect bricks to move apart (they will do this naturally also but those would be the cracks that concerned me, not those along corners etc)

GT60

They recently began digging out foundations for the new extension they are building and since doing this we are developing cracks in ours walls, mainly upstairs and where the wall meets the ceiling, also in our bedroom where the chimney wall meets the ceiling.

You should watch Rouge traders itv from the other night this week some did something simlar to this and there house is now rubble:(

Wkdwill

The cracks are deffinately new, I think ill report it to the council anyway and then they cant say I never told them.

Johnhowell

The Party Wall Notice is to inform the owner of the neighbouring property that works are proposed.

If the property is a council property then contact them and they should send a surveyor around. You could take daily photos of the cracking to show the progress of growth. They may install crack monitors on the affected walls.

John