Historic settling or subsidance?

[Nawen]

Evening,

We've been ripping out rotting joists in our living room in a 1920's house today, when we removed the floor, joists and got a look under them, the earth on one side of the room looks to have sunk and cracked as of the wall on that side of the house has dropped.

There doesn't appear to be any cracks in the bricks or mortar, but we've only owned the house a few years and it was 're pointed' (badly) before we bought it.

From the fairly crappy photos, do I need to contact my insurer before continuing to re-lay my floor to let them take a look?

 

[motorbiking]

It could be historic from a water leak - I'm assuming that is your mains cold water pipe.

You really need to look outside and see if there is any cracking in the brick. In the 20s they typically dug out 12" of foundations for the bricks and "made good" the muddy base. Given the extent of the work you are doing you could install a modern insulated damp proof base. But I'd take advice on that.

 

[JohnD]

from the position of the crack and the obviously repaired pipe, it may well have been a cavity caused by a leak causing the oversite to collapse. But you need to clear out the rubble and have a look under the crack

In your pics I can't see any significant settlement in the brickwork.