House Anxiety

Ksw3

I guess this a call for support. We bought this house a few years ago and I've done nothing but worry about it since. 

The drainage is poor, the roof leaked and there's cracks in the walls. My main worry is subsidence or something structural.

I grew up with very little and always dreamt of having my own house (with an apple tree but the tree will have to wait for the next house). I grew up on an estate in council housing and I have no bank of mum and dad. They've never owned themselves so they don't really get it. 

I just feel its just constant worry. Does it get easier, how do you know when it's right to worry and when it's just wasted energy? 

Peter999_2

I'm sorry you have anxiety about the house.    Are you putting some savings away for a rainy day (no pun intended).   Try and get a large slush fund ready for any major problems. 

In my experience of over 30 years of owning property is that so long as you keep an eye on things nothing much seems to go wrong.    There was once when a few things that went wrong at the same time and I didn't have the money to fix it - but even then I found someone to patch it up as good as possible so it wouldn't get any worse while I could save up money to pay for it.   Ever since then I've made sure I have at least a £5,000 emergency fund (it was bloody hard to build that up and it took ages).

Yes, it is easier to rent as it's not your responsibility but I bet you will end up saving a fortune over the years (the first years are hard, but don't forget that rent tends to go up every year while the money you owe will stay the same/go down over the same time).

I really hope you can stop worrying about it so much and enjoy your house but I know that is easier said then done.  
Just keep reminding yourself that you've done very well to get a house in the first place,   things will get easier.

twopenny

I sort of know what you mean because yes, once it's your own property then it is down to you to get stuff fixed.

There have been occasions when I've wished it was someone elses responsibility but being your own to do with as you wish, to know that you have a secure savings by owning it far outweighs.

You say the roof leaked. So past tense. You've got it fixed?

What are these cracks in the walls? Do you have photos?

Make yourself a list of reliable trades people and note/photo the van+number of those who are working on nice houses. Estate agents will often have a list of local trades. Then you're ready for anything that turns up

I think you should buy your apple tree. It's the right time to plant one. Put it in a pot while it's a baby and take it with you for your next garden.

Some of the supermarkets do dwarf trees for £25, cheap bigger plastic pot. More info on the gardening forum.

Next house look for one with a mature tree.

Congratulations on making it onto the property market

JGB1955

Presumably you have insurance that covers subsidence - so it's the insurance company that would pick up most of the cost of any claim.  We have set ourselves an annual 'repairs and maintenance' budget that is 1% of the value of the house.  That way, we can afford to decorate, repair, improve, re-carpet, landscape etc etc.  I acknowledge that it's not easy in the early days but .... give it a go!

As for the apple tree - why not go out and buy one to celebrate what you've already achieved?  Or put it on your Christmas present list for next year.  They really don't cost a fortune.

Brie

we've had a bit of everything.  I was going to list them but I won't give you more things to worry over.  Suffice to say that between insurance and planning a bit it all comes good.  For me at least.  And the same will happen for you if you slog along.  I certainly agree with buying an apple tree even if it's just in a pot for now.  Any tree shows an optimism for the future.

FreeBear

twopenny said: I think you should buy your apple tree. It's the right time to plant one. Put it in a pot while it's a baby and take it with you for your next garden.

Personally, I would go for something a little more unusual. Ordered a plumcot a couple of years ago, and had one fruit off the tree last year. Unfortunately, it wasn't (appears to be an apricot). The supplier sent me another tree earlier in the year, and only time will tell if this one really is a plumcot.

@Ksw3 - I can fully sympathise with the feeling of having taken too much on. I've owned *this place for nearly 10 years now, and slowly catching up on ~50 years  of minimal maintenance and making improvements when I can. The new doors & windows combined with a new heating system and beefed up insulation are now paying dividends. Just need to find some money to finish off renovating a couple more rooms.

Annemos

As someone who HAS had a Tree Root Subsidence Claim, please do not plant anything too near the house! Things grow.

A pot is fine. 

(20 meters away is about right for me, but I am biased.) 

Can you please send us some photos of your cracks and we can try and advise if there is a problem. Inside and Outside. Are any of the cracks matching, both inside and outside?

ic

How is the drainage poor?  If its a slow draining sink, you probably just have a clog in the trap under the sink, or maybe outside (I had a blockage in an outside drain hidden under decking - I only knew about it when the bathroom sink backed up and wouldn't drain).

Nearly all problems around the house are easy DIY fixes that are rarely expensive, it just takes a preparedness to do a bit of research first - YouTube is a god send, and then be ready to get down on your hands and knees and do the work.

twopenny

Perhaps this is the time when I can say Thank You to all the helpful people on this forum who've turned my crisis into fixable or not to worry.

I really am grateful to all of you who take your time to help. It's made a huge difference

I've either lost useful friends and contacts or the ones left are too old to deal with stuff and discovering this forum means I have somewhere to turn for advice.

So Thank You all.

Ksw3

Thank you all, for your very kind words and thoughts. I'm still thinking of that apple tree!

We have some savings but they seem to keep being swallowed by other things. I don't like relying on other people (habit of a lifetime) so we've managed to do a lot of things ourselves, like fixing a suprise leak when we moved in. Sadly, I have to draw the line at clamouring on the roof and taking out walls, although I'd consider a plastering course...

The roof should be fixed now, waiting for some heavy rain to be sure. The poor drainage is our clay soil, it's awful and the garden floods before it slowly drains away over a few hours. I did manage to make a raised bed and grew some flowers from seed earlier in the year, so looking forward to spring for when they really come alive. I have no idea if wet soil from rain can be a problem to houses. 

The cracks are mostly at the front of the house in the porch and under the 1st storey window. It hard to know if it's the porch opening that's an issue or the complete bodge of the window fitters. They made the hole too big, stuffed it full of thick papery stuff and then tried to plaster over it. There is one crack under that window that looks to be in the brick though, vertical. I will see if I can get some pictures. 

The ones in the porch seem worse after the storm/leak but it's hard to know when you usually just walk past these things. I wouldn't even know who to call or when to get insurance involved and I'd probably still feel it was my fault somehow. 

I really appreciate everyone's kind thoughts. I feel less trapped in my own head. I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas break. I know I need it!

 

Annemos

Don't think about this until after Christmas/New Year. And have a lovely break. 

Afterwards, you can consider these types of things. 

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I am just a homeowner, but I had Subsidence from Tree Roots and also a big water main burst. The info below is what I have found out along the way, as I was getting to grips with my home and the clay. 


The delights of Clay Soil. So many of us are built on clay. When we first buy a house, it takes us a while to sort out how the house functions on a day-to-day basis. One starts to monitor things, as you are doing yourself... and then looking for causes and remedies. (I think people whose homes are not built on clay, cannot quite imagine what it is like to be built on heavy clay.) 

Then after a few years, one looks back and thinks.... I am so glad I had that job done. And as one gets to know all the ins and outs of the particular home and works down the list, one feels much happier. 

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There is an article here on gardens that get retained water.

I think the normal advice is to perhaps have gravel next to the house walls (and even a full French Drain with a pipe in, if necessary). 

A reassuring sign, if you do have a Damp Course, is if the bricks are generally dry above the Damp Course.

(We have had such a lot of rain this year. So during the rain, you can get splashing above the Damp Course and perhaps driving rain, so it can take a couple of days for the bricks above to dry out. Especially if it stays humid. But after that, the bricks should then start to be drying out above the Damp Course Layer. And mine also then dry out below the Damp Course Layer, but they do usually stay damp under the gravel line, due to the wet clay.) 

Any gravel or paving should be about 2 brick courses below the damp-course layer. 

https://www.firstlightlandscaping.co.uk/blog/drainage-solutions-for-waterlogged-gardens

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If you don't have trees near your home. You would just need to be sure that there are no rain-gutter leaks into the ground    or    drain/sewer leaks    or a water main leak.  If one is not sure on the drains, one can get a Drain Survey done. I had one of those. It was great for reassuring me that there were no breakages or problems anywhere. (If there are, then they sort it out, too. They do things like Drain-Lining.)

Re the water main, you can check your water meter to see if water is still going through, when everything is switched off inside. That is a sign of a leak. And also high water bills.  


All that stuff above is to avoid damp getting into the home and possible foundation problems. 

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Assuming all the above is OK re pipes and water main, particularly in the vicinity of the cracking: 

I cannot quite picture the Porch Opening, but maybe a lintel is missing above the door into the main home? Maybe the opening was made wider?    A Builder in your area should be able to help advise you on this. Perhaps you can ask around your neighbours for recommendations. From the sound of it, I would first ask the Builder for an Inspection and opinion. (Not the Insurer. Insurance won't cover it anyway, if it is a "poor construction" issue.)

Some porch movement, if minor, may also be seasonal movement on the clay. Do the cracks tend to open up a bit more if we get a long dry spell?  And then close up in the wet spells? (Or maybe the opposite, I suppose if the ground is quite wet.)   Porches often have narrow foundations, compared to the rest of the house, so they can suffer more movement on the clay. 


Photos of your cracking and Porch will be really useful. 

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