Potential Subsidence, Trees, Homebuyer Survey - Questions and seeking advice

volc25

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volc25

If this is the wrong area of the forum could a mod move it to the correct place for me please or advise if I can delete and start a new thread in the correct place.

troffasky

Yes, this is the right area of the forum.

If you're getting a surveyor to do a report for you, then you're probably better off waiting until you have the report before you ask your question(s) here.

I found a new crack over this lovely hot bank holiday weekend that I cannot recall seeing before, ...
This new crack also cannot be seen inside

As you almost certainly have cavity walls, a crack appearing on the outer leaf won't necessarily be replicated on the inner leaf at the same time, if at all. If the inner leaf is plaster boarded on the inside, it may never be visible inside if it isn't severe enough.

Has it been too long already? Should I have done this sooner?

Maybe the lean of the walls and corresponding lean of the staircase [I assume these are related, I have no idea how your house is arranged] was what the surveyor was referring to when they said "minor structural movement".

Any advise, experience stories, going through insurance etc. Getting council to remove trees would be most welcome.

I bought a house with a 20m beech tree 5m from it. It's on my land. The advice from the arboriculturalist who the bank's surveyor insisted we seek was to reduce the crown by 30% immediately and take it back to that level every 5 years. You're assuming your problem is trees but you haven't mentioned what they are, how big they are and how close they are so it's hard to say.

Ectophile

Trees do tend to get the blame for everything.


"My house is falling down. It must be your trees, so you must fix it at your expense, or else I will sue you."


Which is why so many trees get cut down in residential areas.

volc25

troffasky wrote: »

Yes, this is the right area of the forum.

If you're getting a surveyor to do a report for you, then you're probably better off waiting until you have the report before you ask your question(s) here.


As you almost certainly have cavity walls, a crack appearing on the outer leaf won't necessarily be replicated on the inner leaf at the same time, if at all. If the inner leaf is plaster boarded on the inside, it may never be visible inside if it isn't severe enough.

Maybe the lean of the walls and corresponding lean of the staircase [I assume these are related, I have no idea how your house is arranged] was what the surveyor was referring to when they said "minor structural movement".

I bought a house with a 20m beech tree 5m from it. It's on my land. The advice from the arboriculturalist who the bank's surveyor insisted we seek was to reduce the crown by 30% immediately and take it back to that level every 5 years. You're assuming your problem is trees but you haven't mentioned what they are, how big they are and how close they are so it's hard to say.

Hi,


Thanks for the reply, yes the stairs are connected to the leaning wall, the whole house leans slightly.

The closest tree is about 4 metres away from the hous and was 20 metres or so high but was recently cut back to be about 5 metres tall (nothing to do with me, the owners were just pruning the line of trees lining their garden).


Yes they are cavity walls too. But wouldnt the wall ties therefore cause the pressure to move to the inside skin too since they are connected.



Im mainly posting to work out how best to manage the situation after the report rather than locate the cause of the movement, as the engineer will define the cause but I have a good idea that it would be the trees.

JimmyChanga

Cracks in rendering can occur over time regardless of foundation issues. Especially if it's a very hard mix. If there are new cracks in brickwork, then that would be of concern.

Mistral001

The OP needs to employ a structural engineer. The engineer's brief will be something like "to examine cracks in walls and report on their cause and significance".

You can show the previous report to the engineer but they will probably not want to comment on it. The structural engineer will give their own opinion based on their own inspection.