2nd floor wood cracking

benbay001

The floor creaks not cracks.
It creaks because that is what wood does. The noise is annoying but its hardly a safety issue.
The floor boards are resting on massive joists. You would have to be quite a fat lummox to break a floor board.
Edited: if you want to see poor quality housing, look no further than Spain.
My girlfriend is Spanish so i spend quite alot of time there at various family member's houses/flats.
Everything is built as cheaply as possible. Yes, they look good from the outside but get up close and its a !!!! show. Im an electronics technician by trade and the state of finished wiring beggars belief.
A newly refurbished restaurant with live wires dangling from ceiling. Gfs parents flat trips if you have the heating and washing machine on because the supply is such a low rating (25A).
I always remember her gran telling me how old her house was.... Built in the 60s.. thats basically brand new in the UK.

davidmcn

[Deleted User]

Yes, that high quality concrete they use in Italy seems like a much better building material.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/may/08/italy-building-industry

rach_k

If you are so concerned about the quality of the housing but apparently know so little about construction here, might it be a good idea to take somebody knowledgeable with you to look around houses you're interested in? Even just somebody who has lived in British houses would be better than nothing.

Rocksolid

davidmcn wrote: »

I mean first floor, but what's the point of your image?

Lover_of_Lycra wrote: »

Yes, that high quality concrete they use in Italy seems like a much better building material.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/may/08/italy-building-industry

Roberto Saviano is a ridiculus guy, very low level, even if for the movies seems to have re-invented Hollywood...


That place, that actually is where I come from, had several issues, !!!!!, corrupted politicians etc, nothing to do with the way we build houses.
Then, I'm not sure if England ever seen that sort of earthquakes around 20km from the ground only... Are you sure those fantastic floors will survive? If they survive, the floor would send me on the ceiling. We also have houses with wood, but these kind of floors would send someone in prison in my country, unfortunately the quality of concrete can't be assessed by the owner in general...


For your info, there the problem were the foundations (not in standard), the sand from the sea, the plain iron and low level concrete (the blue powder, usually low quantity). Everything was !!!! but no one checked, is different, other accommodations following building standards are still up after 2 sessions (2009 and 2016), even in the main center of the earthquake.

Bossypants

Rocksolid wrote: »

For me this can't be considered safe on the long run

It's fine if you don't personally like it, but to not consider it safe is absurd. The vast majority of UK housing stock has wooden floors at least on upper floors. A great many of those floors are over 100 years old by now and are still completely sound. So long as a house is reasonably maintained, there's no reason why a wooden floor shouldn't last a good deal longer than that. My previous house was from the 1830's or so and had the original floorboards upstairs, they were perfectly solid. Personally I liked them, they had a lot of character, creaking and all.

We all have preferences, but be careful that you don't take your preferences and turn them into fact against all evidence to the contrary.

Rocksolid

rach_k wrote: »

If you are so concerned about the quality of the housing but apparently know so little about construction here, might it be a good idea to take somebody knowledgeable with you to look around houses you're interested in? Even just somebody who has lived in British houses would be better than nothing.

I suppose that the bank will send someone for the evaluation, but as far as I know this is not the quality check, need to contact someone but I can't let them to see 100 houses, once I find some decent I'll see with someone else as well.

davidmcn

Rocksolid wrote: »

I mean first floor, but what's the point of your image?

The point is that it is likely to save confusion in your discussions about UK buildings if you talk about the ground floor and first floor rather than the first floor and second floor. When I first saw the thread title I assumed it might be something specific to attic conversions i.e. UK second floor, but really you just mean anything upstairs?

Rocksolid

In the last apparent great house I've seen it was the first floor as you say in UK, there wasn't any other floor or it would have been the same.



Well, also the ground floor was not that stable to be honest, but I'm not afraid to fall down from the ground floor

[Deleted User]

Honestly, wooden floors don't give way as easily as you seem to think. I do agree it might save you a lot of time if you try to educate yourself on housing norms in the UK.

We aren't known for anything other than almost unnoticeable earthquakes here.

To be honest, if you want to buy a house and aren't satisfied with build quality here, maybe you need to stop looking. It seems as if you are going into houses expecting them to fall down. The idea of someone falling through the floor isn't really the concern most people have when viewing houses to buy, its rather ridiculous.