Porcelain wall tiles cracking in shower?

Slinky

To give you an idea of costs to remove, we had problems with water getting down a chimney that will be redundant when our boiler is replaced and moved. Our builder gave us a ballpark figure of £500+VAT to remove it down to below roof level and make good the roof.

stuart45

FreeBear said:

Not seeing any support for that chimney - There should be a steel to take the weight and transfer the load to the outer wall. Gallows brackets used to be fitted, but most (all ?) building control departments no longer permit their use. I'd suggest getting a structural engineer in to take a look.

Looks like brickwork level with the ceiling joists, unless the steel was put in later. Defo needs an SE to look at it.

doodling

Hi,

Another vote for a structural engineer.

The wall is appears to be moving / flexing and causing the tiles to crack.

The photo showing the room being refurbished hints that there was a chimney breast which has been removed.  If that is the case, then I would really want to know what is holding the chimney up - you don't want to be taking a shower and find the chimney joining you.

I would be getting a structural engineer to look at it relatively urgently (i.e. within a fortnight).

When you bought the house, what did your survey say about how the chimney was supported?

Given that you're never going to be using the chimney again then (assuming your neighbour isn't using it either) the solution is likely to be removal of the chimney. I still recommend you get it looked at by a structural engineer ASAP however, there may be other things going on as well.

stuart45

Looking at the brickwork I would say that a chimney breast has definitely been removed. It looks like the flues have been bricked up which would help add stability to the stack above. Looking at the width of the stack above(2 bricks), the flues are inside the party wall, instead of 9 inch brickwork separating them.

Pc88

The stack was this way before I purchased the property (3.5 years ago), and judging by the state of the previous bathroom before it was renovated, probably had been that way easily 10+ years (previous owners lived at the property 50 years approx).

In any case, I have a roofer/builder from a construction company coming tomorrow to advise so will take things from there. 

Thanks for all the replies!

stuart45

Do you know if next door has removed the breast on their side?

Pc88

stuart45 said:

Do you know if next door has removed the breast on their side?

I wouldn’t know, I’d need to ask. I’m assuming yes as the breast would otherwise be in their bathroom.

doodling

Hi,

Pc88 said:

The stack was this way before I purchased the property (3.5 years ago), and judging by the state of the previous bathroom before it was renovated, probably had been that way easily 10+ years (previous owners lived at the property 50 years approx).

I would have expected your surveyor to have commented on the absence of the chimney breast when you bought the house - what type of survey did you have?

In any case, I have a roofer/builder from a construction company coming tomorrow to advise so will take things from here.

I'd want someone qualified if it was me (i.e. a structural engineer), given that getting this wrong could result in death / serious injury. I'd also want them to comment on whether there was anything else going on - I'm not entirely sure whether the chimney issue would account for all the cracking you are seeing.