Hi guys,
My garage has sunk/moved in one corner, that's the best way I can describe it. As you look at the front where the door is, the right hand pillar is approximately 2 inches lower than the left, the door is well off square and no longer opens and the water pools on the flat roof in this corner dripping down the dropped pillar. What's weird, in my limited knowledge of foundations and such things, is that there are no significant cracks at all, which considering the amount of movement there must have been, seems weird.
I have attached 2 pictures, one with annotations which I'll explain and one without just for clarity:
Ok, so red indicates the direction of lean or "movement" of that pillar and the connected wall on the right hand flank.The bottom red arrow is meant to indicate it's leaning forward, toward the driveway.
Pink indicates everything that doesn't appear to have moved, as it's all plumb and level.
Green indicates water direction, it tends to pool toward the bottom of that pillar and into the fence, which is nextdoors boundary.
Black indicates drainage which has been CCTV surveyed and is sound.
Blue, indicates the only hairline cracks I can see which are on the back right hand corner, it's the front that has dropped/moved. Oddly, the brick courses are all still plumb and level at the back so why it's cracked there is beyond me.
Here's the same picture without the arrows incase I've defaced anything:
What I do know, is that I've dug an inspection hole at the base of the right hand pillar. The soil underneath is very sandy and almost gravel-like, and not very compact. I could scoop it out with my hand after breaking through the concrete. I could also with relative ease scoop out underneath the concrete driveway slab to a degree, is this normal or is this indicative of it being washed away? The soil was quite wet. Also in the annotated picture you'll see a green circle, this is nextdoor's downpipe off the roof, which we can only assume goes into a soakaway as the CCTV survey didn't show it entering the main run. Whilst in itself this seems normal, I don't know the location of the soakaway, only that it "heads" toward the garage into their garden.
The red circle indicates a problem I found a year ago on the driveway, and technically on their boundary, I got out of my car and my foot sunk a couple of inches. The soil was very sandy and again appeared washed away. I filled it with an old bag of concrete so I didn't break my ankle at a later date and so far appears fine. At this stage, the house seems absolutely fine and unaffected, and weirdly so does the left flank (behind the ivy) of the garage. The side door is on the left hand side and has no problems with opening or closing, and all the frames and brick courses are plumb and level.
Can anyone offer some advice on what my next move should be. I'd like to stop whatever's happening to the garage getting worse with a view to rebuilding the right flank wall in the future. I don't want to wave this anywhere near the insurance for obvious reasons.
Thanks in advance.
My garage has sunk/moved in one corner, that's the best way I can describe it. As you look at the front where the door is, the right hand pillar is approximately 2 inches lower than the left, the door is well off square and no longer opens and the water pools on the flat roof in this corner dripping down the dropped pillar. What's weird, in my limited knowledge of foundations and such things, is that there are no significant cracks at all, which considering the amount of movement there must have been, seems weird.
I have attached 2 pictures, one with annotations which I'll explain and one without just for clarity:
Ok, so red indicates the direction of lean or "movement" of that pillar and the connected wall on the right hand flank.The bottom red arrow is meant to indicate it's leaning forward, toward the driveway.
Pink indicates everything that doesn't appear to have moved, as it's all plumb and level.
Green indicates water direction, it tends to pool toward the bottom of that pillar and into the fence, which is nextdoors boundary.
Black indicates drainage which has been CCTV surveyed and is sound.
Blue, indicates the only hairline cracks I can see which are on the back right hand corner, it's the front that has dropped/moved. Oddly, the brick courses are all still plumb and level at the back so why it's cracked there is beyond me.
Here's the same picture without the arrows incase I've defaced anything:
What I do know, is that I've dug an inspection hole at the base of the right hand pillar. The soil underneath is very sandy and almost gravel-like, and not very compact. I could scoop it out with my hand after breaking through the concrete. I could also with relative ease scoop out underneath the concrete driveway slab to a degree, is this normal or is this indicative of it being washed away? The soil was quite wet. Also in the annotated picture you'll see a green circle, this is nextdoor's downpipe off the roof, which we can only assume goes into a soakaway as the CCTV survey didn't show it entering the main run. Whilst in itself this seems normal, I don't know the location of the soakaway, only that it "heads" toward the garage into their garden.
The red circle indicates a problem I found a year ago on the driveway, and technically on their boundary, I got out of my car and my foot sunk a couple of inches. The soil was very sandy and again appeared washed away. I filled it with an old bag of concrete so I didn't break my ankle at a later date and so far appears fine. At this stage, the house seems absolutely fine and unaffected, and weirdly so does the left flank (behind the ivy) of the garage. The side door is on the left hand side and has no problems with opening or closing, and all the frames and brick courses are plumb and level.
Can anyone offer some advice on what my next move should be. I'd like to stop whatever's happening to the garage getting worse with a view to rebuilding the right flank wall in the future. I don't want to wave this anywhere near the insurance for obvious reasons.
Thanks in advance.
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