Drainage issue and Cracking in House we are buying

ProDave

Another thought.

This looks to be a fairly ordinary semi detached house, of which there will be plenty of other examples.

Do you really especially want THIS one?  Why is it so special that you would risk taking it on with potentially serious problems?  I would just go and look for another one without any such issues.

It would have to have some special feature, or be especially cheap for me to want to take on an unknown risk.

snowcat75

ProDave said:

Am I right in saying that crack is on the END wall of the house and at the bottom of the picture I am seeing the roof of an attached garage.

To me, it looks like that end wall has dropped.  And the back wall of the house has not dropped.

Can you see more evidence of cracks inside the garage in that corner?

It will be for the surveyor to say for certain, but I would tread carefully, worst case that end wall is going to want underpinning.

If you can find a clearly identifiable reason why that wall has dropped, such as a leaking drain, then fixing the fault may stop the problem leaving repointing and re decorating to make good, but i would want to be damned sure that the cause you find really is the cause.

Crack starts from course 4 upwards, I would say its to do with the tie of the corner or lack of it, You have a solider course then 4" work to go around the corner, with really nothing to tie except the 4" work above it.

The brick works terrible typical house bashed which is little improved on mass built houses today.
If you notice despite the poor bond, bricks are incorrectly gauged, damaged and then poorly pointed, the 3 courses above the soldiers below the windows barely look string lined, there was a brickie who hated his job. 

As for subsidence and underpinning, no lower courses haven't moved from there original terrible lines. 

RelievedSheff

AdrianC said:

prats said:

There's a swimming pool on the garage flat roof, and they say no work's needed?

No surprise as a down pipe discharges onto the flat roof!!

prats

The house is detached and on fairly good plot . The asking price of this property was 635K.  Moving down to 585 as bank devalued it which was again a drive through valuation. The Vendor is elderly lady and has moved out. The house is in fairly good condition leaving garden.  More pics attached. Could it be improper support?

Doozergirl

Having seen the first picture and looked at the soldier course, I wondered if there was a knock-through below.  Then you said it was the garage, so I was confused. 

But this floorplan confirms the knock-through into the kitchen.  

Cracks tend to point to their source, so I kind of understand why he thought drain (the rainwater pipe), but the crack is high up the wall.  The more obvious answer to me is that the knock-through isn't correctly supported as the crack goes straight to the end of the erroneous looking soldier course.  

Leading on from what snowcat said, it's a bit too close to the corner of house - that wouldn't have been designed by a structural engineer.  Designed the way that most people choose to open up room, there needs to be more lateral support at the corner in the form of nigh-on a metre of clear space between the corner of the house and the opening.  You don't have that.  

Get your drain survey, because they are always useful to have, but I'd be asking a structural engineer to take a look.    It's fixable and very much doubt it is subsidence, but dodgy support.  It's something that a further price reduction would sweeten.  

Is it your intention to keep the kitchen where it is?  It's tiny.  The very simple answer would be to block that wall back up or make the opening smaller during a remodel. 

A garage conversion looks like an idea to make a lovely big kitchen.  

ProDave

Yes that new information does suggest a poorly supported opening.  My guess is the kitchen was originally in what is now the office, and the knock through to the back of the garage was a later alteration.

Take the advice and get a structural engineer to look at it and advise a remendy. It's looking a lot more like a reasonable buy as long as you can get the price to match the work needed.

prats

Thank you so much all yes cracking did panic me. But to add twist this is the original floorplan the vendor hasn't done anything to the original structure.  It does sound like a poor support than subsidence. So drainage survey and Structural engineer it is then. 

iwb100

AdrianC said:

prats said:

There's a swimming pool on the garage flat roof, and they say no work's needed?

Pooling on a garage roof is very very common and a new garage roof is not exactly a huge cost in the grand scheme of things and basically recommended on any house without a replacement in the past decade anyway...so most houses you buy will probably be better off with a new garage roof....