Do mid Mid Terrace have subsidence

sarah_id1

Last week I visited my friends house which is over 100 year old Victorian mid terrace house in East London. Under the stair case I saw a vertical crack in the wall (which appear to be very old) going all the way to the top. This is just where the kitchen start and the roof ends towards the side of the garden. Is this subsidence! which I thought is rare in mid terrace house. In any case she doesn't seems to be much bothered as this house has been sold about 3 times in last 10 year.

I was inquisitive how serious is this and is there a fix for it.

System

Lots of victorian terrace houses were very shoddily built on minimal foundations.
The back part of our house in Wandsworth had a slope of several inches. There was evidence that it had started moving even during construction.
But it was ancient, and hadn't moved further in a 100 years.

lincroft1710

Without carrying out tests or seeing a picture of the crack, it's difficult to know if it's settlement or subsidence. Subsidence can happen to any house type. Are there any trees very close to the house?

sarah_id1

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Without carrying out tests or seeing a picture of the crack, it's difficult to know if it's settlement or subsidence. Subsidence can happen to any house type. Are there any trees very close to the house?

No Trees around, Whats settlement? is it as bad as subsidence?

lincroft1710

Settlement is common in most houses, more especially newbuilds. It is when the building and foundations press down on the earth until it reaches a solid base.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/repair/houses-settle1.htm

teddysmum

My mother-in-law's next to end terrace, built over mine workings, had a huge crack between her back and front rooms due to subsidence. Also, standing in the doorway of bedroom three, you could actually see that the floor sloped considerably to the back of the property.


Her son-in-law , who is a geologist, looked at plans and this resulted in the Coal Board(or whatever it was then called) having to take responsibility for several of the houses. Each household, in turn, was rehoused , while remedial work was done.

sarah_id1

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Settlement is common in most houses, more especially newbuilds. It is when the building and foundations press down on the earth until it reaches a solid base.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/repair/houses-settle1.htm

Thanks lincroft,

No picture yet but having spoken to different people they are getting increasingly worried. Crack is more than 10mm starting from floor up until half way on the top floor. They live in there for more than a year but nothing appears changing.

Considering its a 100+ year old Mid Terrace house, what is the worst case possibility and cost to fix. This is just near the start of the Original Extension(which is the kitchen) of the house under the stairs toward the garden. There are houses opposite to the garden.

Do the owner need to notify this to the Insurance Company? Would Insurance Company do anything about it?

PasturesNew

Yes, it's possible. I've seen it even on the property programmes on TV. Many reasons for cracks/subsidence in a mid terrace include: an old wartime bomb (crack only/not growing); underground stream; underground mine workings.

sarah_id1

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yes, it's possible. I've seen it even on the property programmes on TV. Many reasons for cracks/subsidence in a mid terrace include: an old wartime bomb (crack only/not growing); underground stream; underground mine workings.

This house is close to Stratford (London), not sure if this was war affected zone?

FR_262

It could also be caused by drain failure. IF the drains have cracked and water is seeping out it will be taking small amounts of soil with it ie it's washing away the foundations.

somethingcorporate

sarah_id1 wrote: »

This house is close to Stratford (London), not sure if this was war affected zone?

http://bombsight.org/explore/greater-london/newham/stratford-and-new-town/

Yep.