Underpinned House - Longmore Avenue, Southampton

milkskae873

stuart45 said:

You don't always know if a house has been underpinned. My daughter bought an end of terrace in a block of 4 and none of the residents had any idea they had been underpinned. 
I only found out when I dug out the foundations for a porch.
The original stone footing is just about 18 inches down, then the underpin concrete comes out about 18 inches, then down much lower than that. Apart from the age of the property the giveaway clue is the smooth side to the concrete indicating where the shuttering was struck.

stuart45 said:

You don't always know if a house has been underpinned. My daughter bought an end of terrace in a block of 4 and none of the residents had any idea they had been underpinned. 
I only found out when I dug out the foundations for a porch.
The original stone footing is just about 18 inches down, then the underpin concrete comes out about 18 inches, then down much lower than that. Apart from the age of the property the giveaway clue is the smooth side to the concrete indicating where the shuttering was struck.

martindow said:

It always seems strange that underpinned houses have more expensive insurance when work has been done to remedy a problem.  You would think that neighbouring houses that have not been underpinned and are built on the same type of ground should be the ones with raised insurance.

martindow said:

It always seems strange that underpinned houses have more expensive insurance when work has been done to remedy a problem.  You would think that neighbouring houses that have not been underpinned and are built on the same type of ground should be the ones with raised insurance.

stuart45 said:

You don't always know if a house has been underpinned. My daughter bought an end of terrace in a block of 4 and none of the residents had any idea they had been underpinned. 
I only found out when I dug out the foundations for a porch.
The original stone footing is just about 18 inches down, then the underpin concrete comes out about 18 inches, then down much lower than that. Apart from the age of the property the giveaway clue is the smooth side to the concrete indicating where the shuttering was struck.

Stuart45: Thank you for the underpinned pic! That is very interesting!!!! Some pp say Underpinned houses are probably more secure than houses that are not..Is that true??? WHy insurance company do not like it and consider more risky????
the house i viewed all are underpinned house. I worried about insurance and resale in the future, 

tooldle

milkskae873 said:

tooldle said:

I’ve previously owned a house that had been underpinned a year or so prior to our purchase. We found the existing insurer to be our only option. Once the works had passed 5 years the full market was open to us at competitive rates. Were you clear with the insurer about how far in the past the underpinning took place? 
To be fair to the vendor, a house underpinned 30 years ago with no ongoing movement, does not have subsidence issues. If the entirety of the ground floor has been underpinned the house is extremely unlikely to experience any further issues.

Toodle : you said you bought a house that had been underpinned. When did they underpinned???
Do you have any further subsidence??
Were you paid full asking price?? 
So too many question. 

Hi, ours was underpinned just under a year prior to our purchase. Owner was elderly and downsizing and, the underpinning was necessary to make the property saleable. The cause was a collapsed culvert in the street. Most of the houses on our side of the street had been underpinned or, were underpinned whilst we lived there. We had no further issues. A house sat on a thick slab of concrete is not going anywhere. We offered slightly under asking (mid 90’s slump). When we sold in the mid 2000’s we achieved full asking price. Insurance was not an issue as we stuck with the original insurer for the first few years before moving to an insurer of our choice. 

Jumblebumble

SameOldRoundabout said:

I think your updated offer is unreasonable. Assuming the survey found no ongoing movement I don’t think the underpinning matters at all. Nor do gas and electric safety, which every survey ever will mention. As a seller I’d be furious if you tried taking away £20k or so after all this time because of work done 30 years ago!

I would be furious if someone tried to sell me a house where the insurance was 10 times normal and did not disclose it before I committed  any non refundable costs as this is dishonest behaviour in the extreme

stuart45

milkskae873 said:

Stuart45: Thank you for the underpinned pic! That is very interesting!!!! Some pp say Underpinned houses are probably more secure than houses that are not..Is that true??? WHy insurance company do not like it and consider more risky????
the house i viewed all are underpinned house. I worried about insurance and resale in the future, 

I would say they are more secure than ones that have the potential for foundation problems, Although probably not more than a well constructed house in good ground. Not sure why the companies consider them more of a risk if they are properly done.
My daughter's house seems fine to me. A friend of mine got done for drink driving and argued for a discount on his insurance as he reckoned that people like him would be less likely to do it again. It didn't wash with them, and he paid a lot more.

homebuyer34

Chiglepig said:

I used to live in that area - assuming the underpinning was done properly (which your information of no subsequent issues, it was), I wouldn't see it as a problem. From an insurance perspective, my old house carried an excess premium for subsidence because of the postcode, but the insurance other than than was not expensive on a yearly basis.

The other issues are your call, but again, not unusual for a house of that age.

One thing you haven't mentioned, but is also common in the Woolston/Bitterne areas is that some of the '30s houses were built with concrete roof tiles that were too heavy for the wall construction, so roof-spread is not uncommon.

how do you know if the underpinned was done property????

davilown

Kazzam1984 said:

tooldle said:

You say ‘damp investigation ‘ so as things stand there is no certainty on whether or not there is an issue, is that correct? Is it a 1930’s ish house? Electrical wise i am guessing an installation not meeting current standards, so functional but more than a couple of years since it was installed? 
I really don’t understand the ‘stigma’ comment. Every underpin i have ever seen involves digging down and pouring tonnes and tonnes of concrete. The house effectively sits on a concrete raft and is going nowhere. You’d need a catastrophic event to cause an issue. Do you know why it was underpinned?
i’m originally from the city to the east of you, and had always understood the whole area to be something of a hotspot for subsidence.

I'm from Bournemouth,  I think the South Coast is all sand. So many houses which have been underpinned because of sandy soil !

Definitely not all sand! Lots of clay just down the road

stuart45

Lot of chalk if you go East.

Chiglepig

@milkskae873, I'm afraid I don't remember the insurer, I moved out seven years ago, but it wasn't a specialist, at one point I'm sure I was insured through my then bank (Nat West).

@homebuyer34, I don't know for sure, but given time elapsed and no obvious signs, I surmised. I know the area, most people who have lived there for even a short amount of time know the signs, and the reputation of certain roads and houses! Any home buyer is sensible to ask the questions and request the appropriate levels of survey rather than asking people on the internet.

tooldle

milkskae873 said:

tooldle said:

I’ve previously owned a house that had been underpinned a year or so prior to our purchase. We found the existing insurer to be our only option. Once the works had passed 5 years the full market was open to us at competitive rates. Were you clear with the insurer about how far in the past the underpinning took place? 
To be fair to the vendor, a house underpinned 30 years ago with no ongoing movement, does not have subsidence issues. If the entirety of the ground flToooor has been underpinned the house is extremely unlikely to experience any further issues.

Toodle:   The underpinned house you bought, were there many cracks??? How do you dealing with cracks.....

No structural cracks. Plenty of plaster shrinkage cracking. It is important not to lose sight of the basics i.e. underpinning is the fix. 
The house attached to us and on the end of the terrace was underpinned several years after we moved in. The insurance company has been monitoring it for a while. The owner had died and the executor was trying to sell the property. It was quite fascinating to watch the work being done. The cause of the subsidence was the same for every house in the terrace. Some insurance companies acted faster than others. 
I’m an engineer. I look at things quite clinically. If you don’t have that mindset then perhaps properties with or requiring major repairs are simply not for you.

Chiglepig

@milkskae873 the house I bought had enormous cracks along the bathroom, kitchen and ground floor bedroom at ceiling level and down from there, but they were found to be roofspread rather than subsidence (and also possibly bomb damage from the bombing of the Supermarine factory in Woolston!). But the whole road was considered  risky, one house had had to be demolished and the plot was empty for years (may still be), and I saw a number underpinned, so, as I said, our insurance carried a higher than normal excess for any subsidence claims.