Ok, here's the situation:
I live in a Victorian terraced house. It's mid terraced, but there is a passageway down one side, so in fact it's more end terraced, with only the top front room and front half of the roof joined to the next property. This may be relevant.
It is in an area very close to a river and is on clay soil.
When we moved in just under 3 years ago the survey stated that there was evidence of historic movement in the property, but there was no evidence of this still being active. It is clear both externally and internally that lots of the properties in the terrace have suffered the same past.
However, I have begun noticing some new cracks in the plasterwork in the house. Although not very wide, maybe only 1mm or so, they all run in a fairly common path. The most pronounced one is on the middle floor, which runs diagonally from the front corner of the ceiling and has made it about half way across the ceiling. This has affected the cornice also. All the other cracks are on vertical walls, generally above doorways. These cracks seem to be at the front corner of the house, with no visible cracks at the back of the house, or on the fully terraced side.
The other thing to note is that previous owners put French doors between 2 rooms, and by doing so had to remove a load bearing wall, and, as a neighbour has told us, had a lintel/i-beam type thing put in. There is now a crack above this doorway on either side of the wall above it and the door is now sticking. No other doors or windows are sticking.
There is no visisble cracking on the outside of the building. A couple of the lintels have moved slightly, however I understand this was part of the historical movement and isn't something new.
The only work we have done to the house since buying it was rectifying a damp issue we had running down the wall which made up part of the passageway. It had been suggested by a damp inspector person that the damp was being caused because the passageway had been laid too high up the wall and there was no drainage, so any DPC that existed could have been bridged. He suggested digging a small ditch along the base of the wall and filling with rubble, to allow the wall to dry out. We did this and the damp seems to have improved somewhat. Could it be this that has caused the ground to move? The ditch is neither deep nor wide, maybe 3 bricks deep and 1 1/2 wide.
I have booked a structural surveyor to come round and check it out, but that won't be until probably the middle to end of next week, and right now, I'm cacking myself!
I'm aware that my insurance policy will pay for repair to damage caused by subsidence due to landslip, heave etc, but will not pay if it has been caused by defective workmanship or if it has been caused by work done to remedy something else. Hopefully I didn't cause it!
So, my question is, does this sound like subsidence, or could it be related to the French doors, or me digging the trench? If this turned out to be a problem with a leaking drain or water main etc, would I require underpinning after this was fixed?
Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks for reading, I know it's a long one!!
I live in a Victorian terraced house. It's mid terraced, but there is a passageway down one side, so in fact it's more end terraced, with only the top front room and front half of the roof joined to the next property. This may be relevant.
It is in an area very close to a river and is on clay soil.
When we moved in just under 3 years ago the survey stated that there was evidence of historic movement in the property, but there was no evidence of this still being active. It is clear both externally and internally that lots of the properties in the terrace have suffered the same past.
However, I have begun noticing some new cracks in the plasterwork in the house. Although not very wide, maybe only 1mm or so, they all run in a fairly common path. The most pronounced one is on the middle floor, which runs diagonally from the front corner of the ceiling and has made it about half way across the ceiling. This has affected the cornice also. All the other cracks are on vertical walls, generally above doorways. These cracks seem to be at the front corner of the house, with no visible cracks at the back of the house, or on the fully terraced side.
The other thing to note is that previous owners put French doors between 2 rooms, and by doing so had to remove a load bearing wall, and, as a neighbour has told us, had a lintel/i-beam type thing put in. There is now a crack above this doorway on either side of the wall above it and the door is now sticking. No other doors or windows are sticking.
There is no visisble cracking on the outside of the building. A couple of the lintels have moved slightly, however I understand this was part of the historical movement and isn't something new.
The only work we have done to the house since buying it was rectifying a damp issue we had running down the wall which made up part of the passageway. It had been suggested by a damp inspector person that the damp was being caused because the passageway had been laid too high up the wall and there was no drainage, so any DPC that existed could have been bridged. He suggested digging a small ditch along the base of the wall and filling with rubble, to allow the wall to dry out. We did this and the damp seems to have improved somewhat. Could it be this that has caused the ground to move? The ditch is neither deep nor wide, maybe 3 bricks deep and 1 1/2 wide.
I have booked a structural surveyor to come round and check it out, but that won't be until probably the middle to end of next week, and right now, I'm cacking myself!
I'm aware that my insurance policy will pay for repair to damage caused by subsidence due to landslip, heave etc, but will not pay if it has been caused by defective workmanship or if it has been caused by work done to remedy something else. Hopefully I didn't cause it!
So, my question is, does this sound like subsidence, or could it be related to the French doors, or me digging the trench? If this turned out to be a problem with a leaking drain or water main etc, would I require underpinning after this was fixed?
Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks for reading, I know it's a long one!!
