It all seems too simple

[skier-hughes]

lack of internet comes up alot too. anyone any experience of satellite broadband? probably not the place. we'll let him sort that one.

Last time I looked it was very expensive, so best shared between neighbours. So you had one disc sending/receiving and set up your own network from that to those that were sharing the cost.

Sat. broadband tends to be very quick and often dsl, so you get same up speed as you get down.

It has been two years since I last looked as we ended up buying the house we are in now and had a phone line.

Graham

 

[chuckey]

Around here the downhill wall quite often falls out of buildings( well after 300 years or so). Its particularily common when the ridge is running parrallel to the slope. Its is caused by the weight of the roof pushing the walls out as there is only one truss holding the front wall to the back wall. And of course by the rubbish foundations!
What the old timers did when they built my cottage (pre-1805) was to dig a trench over 24" deep, hurl in the biggest stones they could find, then build the walls on these. The problem is that they never filled the voids in and around these "foundation" stones, so over the years the action of water and the weight of the walls cause the soil to move into these voids and the building to settle. I discovered this when poking about to see if the building had a stepped foundation, and after about 6" of topsoil, my spike often dropped 2 feet into a void. if any one has a cure for this problem I too will be grateful.
I did french drains around my place working on the asumption that it is safe to dig down to 6" below the original floor level then if you want to go deeper, outwards at 45 degrees. As I reckon my foundation stones extend for 18" deeper then my drain level I think the building is secure.
Frank

 

[NT]

we havent worked out how we're going to eat if we do buy the house.
Anyone got a recipy for woodworm soup?

If its really that bad I'd forget it. Theres always some amount of unforeseen cost, and you dont want to run yourself into those kind of problems.


NT

 

[charlie-ia]

sounds like another item for the do-able column. hope you lot arn't leading me astray. just read old posts called "too much too soon" and "does it get any better". all very reassuring. this lime stuff sounds like fairyfood. one taste and you can never return.

anybody got anything to say on the general drainage issue? must admit i wish Id not mentioned broadband. that is something i find difficult to get my head round. sorry graham. I'll pass your comments on, sure theyll be helpful.

 

[charlie-ia]

done it again, so careful on phrasing my replies. now two of you come along at once! clearly not all reasurring. keep going, tell me more!

 

[charlie-ia]

thanks frank.
the settlement cracks are towards the downhill end, though in the two walls joining the end wall. I suppose if the wall was going to fall off this is where it would tear. the ridge of the roof is perpendicular to the ridge of the hill.
Oh dear!

 

[charlie-ia]

remember im still learning please! (dimwit question coming up)

whats a truss?

we have many more than one roof truss, in reasonable repair.

i dont think thats what youre refering to, is it Frank?

 

[NT]

remember im still learning please! (dimwit question coming up)

whats a truss?

we have many more than one roof truss, in reasonable repair.

i dont think thats what youre refering to, is it Frank?

big wooden triangle, lots of which hold the roof up.


NT

 

[charlie-ia]

chuckey said- "roof pushing the walls out as there is only one truss holding the front wall to the back wall"

only one?

 

[chuckey]

Yes , only one, The other roof joists ( 17 pairs) just run down from the ridge (board/plank?) and end in the cavity between the two skins of the wall.
frank

 

[charlie-ia]

sorry, I think im being thick here. you have lots of triangle frames, with joists as the bottom of the triangle (?). whats the diffrence between a joist and a truss then?

 

[chuckey]

Sorry I was inprecise. A truss is a whole frame. What I was calling the joists are actually rafters, the bits of wood running down the slope of the roof. The horizontal member between the bottom of two opposite rafters is a tie beam (it ties their end together). So the truss is made of two rafters and one tie beam. Good site for American building volcabulary:- http://www4.bfn.org/bah/a/DCTNRY/vocab.html (Curtesy of some one clever on this BB)
Frank

 

[charlie-ia]

So what have you actually got Frank? 'fraid im blaming you for at least one sleepless night (nothing to do with the cat trying to scuba in the fishtank at 4am really)
several rafters making a v shape for the roof, but only one horizontal beam to hold it all together?

 

[Lime]

Soil structure dictates how house foundations behaves on a slope.
Making comparison with other property elsewhere is not really sensible unless the soil is identical.
If the house is next to bog what type of foundations do you expect?
Many years ago foundations were rudimentary and often not installed at all.
If your house has foundations they were installed because it was thought required.
Almost certainly they would have been designed to move with time to take up any soil movement.
What does the test of time tell you?

Modern houses have difficulty with some boggy ground.
Usually a concrete raft will have been used to spread the load but movement can still occur.
It is not uncommon to see newer houses completely at a tilt because the whole raft has shifted.

You need to get out of your head the modern view of a house that is rigid and completely solid in every way.
Old houses were built to move slowly and take up the result of those movements including the foundations.

My concern would be for the woodworm shut up in a house miles away in Ireland with nothing to do except eat and breed.

As NT has said you need to find out ALL the damage done so far.
You cannot take anything for granted.
Sometimes woodworm looks bad, sometimes not, but appearances are deceptive.
You need to survey all the timber in your house.

 

[chuckey]

Charli-ia yes! The problem with foundations is as Lime says, they are totaly dependent on the soil and the local water courses. All we see are are the relatively succesful combinations. The poor examples have literally bitten the dust. It is disquitening when modern (1970s) houses fall down or have their walls crack as happens near my house in south hampshire. This is because the builders build for the best case soil conditions and not for the worst and will not get soil analysis done because might demonstrate their suspicions about the site. Locally there was a big fight to stop developers building on the river Itchens flood plain, despite the local knowledge of the poor site connditions. I would have thought that a field of bullrushes might have been a clue!
frank

 

[charlie-ia]

What does the test of time tell you?

The blinking thing is falling down!!!!!

My concern would be for the woodworm shut up in a house miles away in Ireland with nothing to do except eat and breed.

I think thats taking animal rights a bit far!:lol:

ok, we'll leave the foundations be, till we know more

frank chuckie, our roof may or may not be like yours, but youve got me genuinely interested now. please start again at the start, and tell me all about it.
The tin roof on our extension just has the sloping rafters, with no major cross pieces, is it that kind of idea? (though this is one storey,one room and lightweight obviously)

 

[chuckey]

As you say , for a "tin" roof it is OK. For a roof covered with limestone slate its pushing things a bit. There are purlins though, these are beams that run underneath the rafters parrallel to the ridge, but they are unsupported either then at their ends so where the roof has splayed out in the centres of the walls and the truss, the purlins are twisted out of true by about 1" vertically and 2" horizontaly. The big problem (I think) is that the rafters are not fastened to the purlins, so the rafters have just slid down them and pushed the inner skin of the walls outwards and pulled the ridge board downwards. This effect is easy to see in old buildings, the ridge line is lumpy wiith peaks where the trusses are and dips in between.
Frank