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Just bought house - potential subsidence?
housebuyer4
Posts: 1 Newbie
Hi all,
Hoping someone can please help with something I've noticed in our house that we've just bought which is causing us some stress tonight.
The house was built in the mid 50's as a three bed detached and was extended with a bedroom added over the garage not too long after it was built. The previous owners bought the house in around 1991 and added their own two storey extension onto the other side of the house in around 2001.
We viewed the house shortly after it came on the market and it garnered lots of other viewings quickly - we were quick to put in an offer (we were the only ones that offered) and our second offer was accepted. Throughout the conveyancing (eg on the Property Information Form) there was no mention of subsidence or similar and we had a Homebuyer Report survey done which similarly didn't mention anything around this.
On moving into the house a few days ago I noticed that in the ground floor room of the most recent extension, in the middle of the far wall from the rest of the house, there is a gap between the laminate floor and skirting board of around an inch (in the corners either side of this wall, the gap is much smaller, thereby indicating some form of "sagging" of the floor). This was presumably concealed by furniture on the viewings as it's not something we noticed then.
I had a closer look around tonight and noticed that in the opposite corner of this room (where the extension meets the "old" part of the house) there are cracks in the inside wall - the coving is cracked in the corner and a crack runs down the wall and across part of the ceiling in the other direction. The crack is roughly 1-3mm wide - I can't specifically remember noticing this on the viewings but may have discounted it as normal plaster cracking in the absence of other signs of a problem.
Considering both of these things, I went to check the outside walls - however where the extension meets the old house, the walls are covered in ivy and can't easily be inspected. There are no obvious significant cracks that I can see but much of the wall (especially the upper portion) is (perhaps conveniently) obscured. On the opposite side of the house, there are no significant cracks but the pointing where the extension was joined on is thicker and more pronounced which made me wonder if a repair had been done here at some point.
On the first floor inside the newer extension, when walking down the landing, the floorboards are uneven directly above the inside wall crack mentioned earlier (where extension meets house) - giving a slight "step up" when walking over it. The surveyor did note this but just called it a "construction change in level" and just mentioned it might need repairing, despite being minor. On the inside walls here, I noticed tonight that the walls have been repaired and repainted (very slightly different shade of paint suggesting it's more recent that the rest and a filler type repair can be seen) down the wall roughly where the extension meets the old house.
Something else to note is that in our first couple of days in the house there was a very heavy rain shower and I noticed water shooting out of the gutter and running down the house walls on the extension (on the corner above where the floor seems to be sagging). I'd just assumed a pipe/gutter blockage but tonight figured if the inclination of the building due to movement might be causing the water the run down that way and leave the gutter?
I'm concerned that all of the above suggest movement of the newer extension. What look like repairs suggest to me that the previous owners knew about this and it's very surprising that the survey didn't mention anything. Does this sound like cause for concern or possibly just historic settling? What would you advise next steps to be? Should we get the surveyors back around asap to reassess?
I have pictures of the things mentioned above but not quite sure how to share so I'll try to do this now.
Thanks very much and sorry for the essay.
Hoping someone can please help with something I've noticed in our house that we've just bought which is causing us some stress tonight.
The house was built in the mid 50's as a three bed detached and was extended with a bedroom added over the garage not too long after it was built. The previous owners bought the house in around 1991 and added their own two storey extension onto the other side of the house in around 2001.
We viewed the house shortly after it came on the market and it garnered lots of other viewings quickly - we were quick to put in an offer (we were the only ones that offered) and our second offer was accepted. Throughout the conveyancing (eg on the Property Information Form) there was no mention of subsidence or similar and we had a Homebuyer Report survey done which similarly didn't mention anything around this.
On moving into the house a few days ago I noticed that in the ground floor room of the most recent extension, in the middle of the far wall from the rest of the house, there is a gap between the laminate floor and skirting board of around an inch (in the corners either side of this wall, the gap is much smaller, thereby indicating some form of "sagging" of the floor). This was presumably concealed by furniture on the viewings as it's not something we noticed then.
I had a closer look around tonight and noticed that in the opposite corner of this room (where the extension meets the "old" part of the house) there are cracks in the inside wall - the coving is cracked in the corner and a crack runs down the wall and across part of the ceiling in the other direction. The crack is roughly 1-3mm wide - I can't specifically remember noticing this on the viewings but may have discounted it as normal plaster cracking in the absence of other signs of a problem.
Considering both of these things, I went to check the outside walls - however where the extension meets the old house, the walls are covered in ivy and can't easily be inspected. There are no obvious significant cracks that I can see but much of the wall (especially the upper portion) is (perhaps conveniently) obscured. On the opposite side of the house, there are no significant cracks but the pointing where the extension was joined on is thicker and more pronounced which made me wonder if a repair had been done here at some point.
On the first floor inside the newer extension, when walking down the landing, the floorboards are uneven directly above the inside wall crack mentioned earlier (where extension meets house) - giving a slight "step up" when walking over it. The surveyor did note this but just called it a "construction change in level" and just mentioned it might need repairing, despite being minor. On the inside walls here, I noticed tonight that the walls have been repaired and repainted (very slightly different shade of paint suggesting it's more recent that the rest and a filler type repair can be seen) down the wall roughly where the extension meets the old house.
Something else to note is that in our first couple of days in the house there was a very heavy rain shower and I noticed water shooting out of the gutter and running down the house walls on the extension (on the corner above where the floor seems to be sagging). I'd just assumed a pipe/gutter blockage but tonight figured if the inclination of the building due to movement might be causing the water the run down that way and leave the gutter?
I'm concerned that all of the above suggest movement of the newer extension. What look like repairs suggest to me that the previous owners knew about this and it's very surprising that the survey didn't mention anything. Does this sound like cause for concern or possibly just historic settling? What would you advise next steps to be? Should we get the surveyors back around asap to reassess?
I have pictures of the things mentioned above but not quite sure how to share so I'll try to do this now.
Thanks very much and sorry for the essay.
0
Comments
-
The gutters need re-aligning/repair.
If you're worried about subsidence, pay a strucural engineer to take a look.0
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