Do mid Mid Terrace have subsidence

sarah_id1

somethingcorporate wrote: »

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

Yep.

If war is the cause then it would be very old not growing crack and so not serious!

weeg

The importan thing to realise about cracks is they are only an issue if they are still moving and growing.

Draw two pencil marks, one on either side of the crack, exactly 100mm apart, and another pencil line at the furthest exents of the crack. If, in 3 months, the lines are still 100mm apart, and the cracks haven't passed beyond the lines at the ends, then the crack is not growing and nothing needs to be done to fix it. You can just polyfilla it and not bother about it.

If, on the other hand the crack is still moving, this could be caused by a range of things - subsidence (due to trees, drains, mines or poor foundations), increased load upstairs, structural changes to an adjoining property. In other words, too much to speculate on. Get a structural engineer to take a look.

lincroft1710

sarah_id1 wrote: »

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?

If the crack is definitely moving, then they should have it properly investigated by a structural engineer. They should check their insurance policy about when they should notify their insurers. Most house insurance policies cover subsidence damage, but the normal excess is £1,000.

I don't think it will happen in this case, but I have come across several houses which have had to be demolished because of subsidence, the soil type was the cause of the subsidence.

You mention an extension. Sometimes an extension can "pull" on the existing house, causing cracking in the existing walls. This can be caused by poor foundations in the extension.

sarah_id1

lincroft1710 wrote: »

You mention an extension. Sometimes an extension can "pull" on the existing house, causing cracking in the existing walls. This can be caused by poor foundations in the extension.

The extension where the crack is located is original part of the house i.e. as old as the house. But there is a true small extension which is probably 10 to 15 years old maybe, I suspect that would have caused any harm.