Help and advice for a newbie please!

[Belinda]

And many thanks again for all the advice.

Although my husband has had a long chat with our CO I'm going to see if we can meet on site so that she can appreciate some of the problems with the house, and understand why we want/need to do certain things (like moving the kitchen) but without damaging the house itself.

This is the front of the house - note the large crack and bend in the roof. Also spot the new boiler flue sticking out through the wall - the vendor to try to make the house more appealing to purchasers installed new boiler and put the flue in this position (it previously went into the roof space).


at least we only have two external walls to deal with. And I'm really hoping that as it is brick construction with the ashlar stone facing then major timber problems might be limited to the roof. The electrics are at least of modern design, and the bathroom and shower room look like they were re-fitted in the 1970's so again fingers crossed that the plumbing can last a bit longer. We've contacted one local firm already about restoration of the sash windows, and will get more quotes for that. I think it is the structural work that is the most frightening as we have no experience of this at all, so we don't know whether the house is unstable, or stable and needs micro-piling and stitching, and no idea as to cost - £10k or £100k.

You certainly haven't see the last of me on here

 

[plasticpigeon]

That's quiet a big crack, but its quite an old house. I'm not a structural engineer, but the more I learn about my house, and houses in general, the more I think that these interventions such as underpinning, micropiling and crack stitching, are just new ways of builders scaring home owners, relieving them of lots of cash and causing unnecessary destruction of original fabric. The important thing is to determine if the house foundations are actively moving, and if so find out why, which is often broken drains or trees. Please don't rush into anything as regards remedial works. That flue placement is disgraceful!

 

[Penners]

I confess that I'm having trouble distinguishing between cracks and old climbing plant stalks. Are we talking about cracks running down from the right-hand side (as we look at it) of the lintel over the central window (above the portico)? Or is there a crack below and to the left of the attractive new boiler flue pipe ( :evil: )? I guess the black line running from the bottom of the upstairs left-hand window down to the top of the downstairs ditto is a bit of phone cable, or some such? Or is that a crack?

I'm also a bit blind to the bend in the roof. I've even laid a ruler across my computer screen! But I can't see it.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Certainly very sensitive position for the boiler flue :shock: :!:
I agree with Penners, the 'cracks' are quite difficult to see, so hopefully they will turn out to be superficial and easy to put right!

When you have all the facts and advice it will be well worth 'standing back' for a while to allow the euphoria of an exciting purchase to fade sufficiently and get it all into perspective--pray for some better weather this spring!

 

[plasticpigeon]

I assumed the black line at eaves level and just to the left of the upper window was the crack.

 

[MatthewC]

The lintel on the central window has open joints at either end, and on the right of that window there seem to be two cracks; then there's another below and to the left of the flue pipe. There's something funny with the roof to the right of that window where you can see a few tiles sticking up higher than the rest.

 

[Belinda]

those are re-assuring posts! I wasn't overly worried about this particular set of external cracks until my daughter saw the house for the first time and reported back that it looked like a spot about to pop. Nice. I haven't been up to the house for about 3 weeks but I doubt if it has moved to eruptive dimensions in that time. Even as a layman I can't easily see the cause - there are certainly no large trees nearby, and having the drains thoroughly checked is high on the list.

Our builder has been in the trade for years (although not a specialist in period property) and very sensibly has said that we will concentrate on the roof first to make sure everything is water-tight from the top, then start worrying about the stability and repairing the cracks.

My husband is away in London and I'm useless with all things technical but when he is back I shall post up a photo of the long (although not very wide, relatively speaking) crack all the way up the internal wall of house and edging its way towards the gorgeous light lantern.... :shock:

 

[Penners]

Very sensible to tackle the roof before anything else. There's no point in doing anything to a house until you've ensured that it's got its hat firmly on.

In my extremely limited experience of buildings, I have to say that I have never heard of a crack that has increased to catastrophic size in a matter of weeks (except in earthquake zones!). I suppose it's not impossible, but the vast majority of cracks tend to move very slowly. One crude way of establishing whether a crack is still moving, or has stabilised, is to glue a thin glass slip across it with a rigid glue such as Araldite. If the crack moves the glass breaks.

 

[Belinda]

Here's the photos that I mentioned - we love the light lantern, the large crack less so.

 

[Belinda]

poor house

I've got a meeting with the Conservation officer and a structural engineer next week so that'll be decision time as to a revised offer or offer retracted. Obviously we'd much rather buy the house but we have to be (fairly) sensible when it comes to finances.