Hello, I am hoping that someone out there will be able to give me some informed advice, and not just a "top of the head" opinion. The following is about the house we bought thirty-six years ago. Its a small semi-detached built of brick, and it rests on a clay-only foundation.
This house had been owned by two people that never lived in it, but who let it out. The couple that lived in it before us lived there, as tenants, since 1947, when it was built (we bought it in 1982). It was thoroughly run-down, and one of my early jobs, to make it habitable by degrees while we lived in it, was to strip off the wallpaper from all the rooms, including the stairway.
When the old paper was stripped from the stairway, I saw a crack in the wall above the actual stairs (the wall that one passes beneath, on going up or down the stairs). By this, you will understand that the wall I am referring to is only about 8.5 feet high as it descends from the ceiling to the top of the void that is the stairway. (It is as wide as the stairs are, of course.)
The crack was diagonal, and started from being a hair-crack, near to the top-left corner of the wall. It extended, for perhaps six feet, towards the bottom-right corner of this wall, and widened until, at the furthest end, it may have been as much as a quarter of an inch wide.
The only thing that I could do was to fill it with filling-paste, sand it, and paper over it. Since then, no crack has appeared in the wallpaper (the same paper that was applied by me originally). If the crack had widened further, the white-painted wallpaper would have shown this, but it did not.) Outside the house (including the side that would be affected, if at all, by the crack — i.e. the side-wall of the building), block-paving was laid about fifteen years ago. This work involved the use of a "whacker-plate" machine (to compact the ballast that was laid prior to laying grit-sand and blocks). Recently, the house has also suffered the shocks of nearby pile-driving (which really shook all the houses that surrounded the building site, including ours) and there have been other disturbances, including the enthusiastic use of a "pummeller" (or "pummer") when a roving band of tarmac salesmen set out to put a tarmac path at the side of the house (twenty-five years ago).
I have observed no negative effects on the building, after the above operations.
Yet, I am bothered about the fact of there being a crack in this wall. For aught that I know, it may just have been a "settling' crack, as the house settled into its base after being built. However, I don't know. It may have a potential for serious subsidence.
One thing I have observed is that, about nine years ago, I fixed a Chubb security bolt into the edge of a bedroom door. This door is only about four feet away from the wall in which the crack was found (i.e. just across the landing). About twelve months after the tubular Chubb bolt had been fixed, I tested whether it worked (it worked immediately after being fitted), and found that it would not shoot. (This is because of subsequent movement in the building, surely.) So, it now cannot be used.
When renewing my insurance, in all honesty, I was compelled to declare that there is evidence of movement or subsidence in the building (because of the crack, though in fact, no subsidence has ever occurred). So, no subsidence cover is included in our insurance.
After this rambling story (it's all necessary background, however), I need to ask whether this kind of crack, in the location described, is a common feature of house-settlement in older houses, or whether I should be greatly concerned about it. Because my wife and I cannot be expected to live for very much longer, I should also like to feel that it will be possible to leave it to ours sons to sell, without the liability of having to declare that it may be unsafe. (Also, of course, I should not be happy for it to be passed on to another owner in its present state, if there is good reason for concern about the crack.)
Finally, I should be willing (if I could afford it, which may not be the case) to have some kind of building inspector to assess the property (without stripping any wallpaper off the wall) and to tell me whether the house is safe or not (and to provide some kind of certificate, to show the findings).
I also need to know where I can find a building inspector (or whatever he may be called) in Oldham, Lancashire; also, to hear what this forum may have to say about this whole mixed bag of concerns. I do not know anyone else that I might ask for advice!
With thank in hopeful anticipation of some advice/information/comments.
A.W.
This house had been owned by two people that never lived in it, but who let it out. The couple that lived in it before us lived there, as tenants, since 1947, when it was built (we bought it in 1982). It was thoroughly run-down, and one of my early jobs, to make it habitable by degrees while we lived in it, was to strip off the wallpaper from all the rooms, including the stairway.
When the old paper was stripped from the stairway, I saw a crack in the wall above the actual stairs (the wall that one passes beneath, on going up or down the stairs). By this, you will understand that the wall I am referring to is only about 8.5 feet high as it descends from the ceiling to the top of the void that is the stairway. (It is as wide as the stairs are, of course.)
The crack was diagonal, and started from being a hair-crack, near to the top-left corner of the wall. It extended, for perhaps six feet, towards the bottom-right corner of this wall, and widened until, at the furthest end, it may have been as much as a quarter of an inch wide.
The only thing that I could do was to fill it with filling-paste, sand it, and paper over it. Since then, no crack has appeared in the wallpaper (the same paper that was applied by me originally). If the crack had widened further, the white-painted wallpaper would have shown this, but it did not.) Outside the house (including the side that would be affected, if at all, by the crack — i.e. the side-wall of the building), block-paving was laid about fifteen years ago. This work involved the use of a "whacker-plate" machine (to compact the ballast that was laid prior to laying grit-sand and blocks). Recently, the house has also suffered the shocks of nearby pile-driving (which really shook all the houses that surrounded the building site, including ours) and there have been other disturbances, including the enthusiastic use of a "pummeller" (or "pummer") when a roving band of tarmac salesmen set out to put a tarmac path at the side of the house (twenty-five years ago).
I have observed no negative effects on the building, after the above operations.
Yet, I am bothered about the fact of there being a crack in this wall. For aught that I know, it may just have been a "settling' crack, as the house settled into its base after being built. However, I don't know. It may have a potential for serious subsidence.
One thing I have observed is that, about nine years ago, I fixed a Chubb security bolt into the edge of a bedroom door. This door is only about four feet away from the wall in which the crack was found (i.e. just across the landing). About twelve months after the tubular Chubb bolt had been fixed, I tested whether it worked (it worked immediately after being fitted), and found that it would not shoot. (This is because of subsequent movement in the building, surely.) So, it now cannot be used.
When renewing my insurance, in all honesty, I was compelled to declare that there is evidence of movement or subsidence in the building (because of the crack, though in fact, no subsidence has ever occurred). So, no subsidence cover is included in our insurance.
After this rambling story (it's all necessary background, however), I need to ask whether this kind of crack, in the location described, is a common feature of house-settlement in older houses, or whether I should be greatly concerned about it. Because my wife and I cannot be expected to live for very much longer, I should also like to feel that it will be possible to leave it to ours sons to sell, without the liability of having to declare that it may be unsafe. (Also, of course, I should not be happy for it to be passed on to another owner in its present state, if there is good reason for concern about the crack.)
Finally, I should be willing (if I could afford it, which may not be the case) to have some kind of building inspector to assess the property (without stripping any wallpaper off the wall) and to tell me whether the house is safe or not (and to provide some kind of certificate, to show the findings).
I also need to know where I can find a building inspector (or whatever he may be called) in Oldham, Lancashire; also, to hear what this forum may have to say about this whole mixed bag of concerns. I do not know anyone else that I might ask for advice!
With thank in hopeful anticipation of some advice/information/comments.
A.W.
