Retaining wall lean with house I'm buying

[johnstalvern]

Hello DIYNot -- I'm new here and signed up to ask a question. I'm buying a house and its been flagged that the retaining wall that separates the house and driveway from a field, has some lean and cracking in some sections.

I'm being told it's expensive to fix.

At its closest point, it's about 5-6m from the house. The parts with the lean are around 10m from the house.

https://imgur.com/SyaU7xG (this is it in 2008 from Google Maps)
https://imgur.com/7wd6u8V (this is from the survey report)

The wall is around 2 meters tall and around 55m long. The next images are from the Home Survey report.

https://imgur.com/o6NcIEc (he's close to the wall here)

https://imgur.com/HyWSMCH

The first image was taken in 2008 by Google Maps, and shows the same lean. It doesn't appear to be any worse now.

I'm getting concerned that it will be a major expense in the future, as nothing stays the same forever.

Any thoughts on this are appreciated -- the main thing I'm concerned about, is forking out for a replacement wall early into my ownership of it.

 

[RonnyRaygun]

Doesn't look good, but it might last for a long time yet. It will be your responsibility though to ensure it's safe though.

Would you need to replace all of it or just a section? Would be a big job and I'd guess at least £1000 a metre, plus you'd lose half of your garden during the excavation and construction process and have to put that right...

 

[^woody^]

In my professional opinion ... who knows?

It could be like that forever or move next spring.

There would be options for holding repairs, but if that is a retaining wall, the main culprit would be large trees or shrubs, so one option may be to remove a culprit or two to gain more time

But there are nearly always options to renew just parts of such a wall if need be.

I would not let that wall prevent you buying a house you like.

 

[KenGMac]

Difficult to see but? Are these Concrete panels with applied roughcast render?

Basically all as above, especially get shot of the large tree one of the shots shows a large tree overhanging [almost] resting on the wall.

Individual panels, especially if concrete will be a lot easier to deal with than a brick wall should it come to the bit when a replacement panel is indeed needed. Or??? check out [so called] nailing stabilisation for walls.

Ken.

 

[johnstalvern]

Thank you all for replying to this. It's much appreciated -- this whole business has me stressed.

@KenGMac I think it's blocks but I'm not actually sure. There is definitely render applied, the same as the rest of the property's walls. There is another smaller retaining wall beside the house that is actually holding back couple of feet of field, and it appears to be in good condition.

The wall is shown in ths picture attached -- basically the cracks are roughly beside where the car is sitting on the driveway. And the other noticeable crack is down at the southmost part of the wall.


It should be noticed that the outbuilding to the south-east also has some serious cracks and appears to be ready for demolition. It's a single skin brick building used for some sort of farming (at some point)

This might give a better impression of the wall.

@^woody^ I'm very close to pulling out just due to the uncertainty around costs. If I could put a price to it, I'd be less worried. A builder mentioned 8-10k, but said could even be as high as 20 -- he couldn't say for sure... the surveyor said as high as 40k to replace. Neither really gave any options for repair.

Should also mention that I had a builder look at the subfloor vents running along the front of the property due to the height of the tarmac risking water ingress -- he said it didn't need anything done due to the natural incline of the drive going towards the wall. I think the drive was re-tarmaced at some point. In passing the owner said water sometimes pools towards the wall direction.

The drains had a lot of moss around them and appeared to be blocked.

My surveyor said
"The site is generally bound by way of retaining walls both to the front and to the side. The front retaining walls which continue around the patio are subject to movement and damage. It appears that this has been like this for a considerable period although we would recommend some structural repairs be conducted to these walls, or alternatively purchasing additional farmland and backfilling these walls."

Also "There was a side patio area noted whilst the side patio wall has moved as ground movement has occurred with bulging noted to the retaining walls with repairs required."

I met him in person at the site, and while he did mention the walls to me first and foremost, he didn't necessarily say 'steer clear' or give me the impression he thought the walls were about to come down.

 

[johnstalvern]

Since I may or may not even buy the house at this point, I guess it doesn't hurt to show the location -- https://www.google.com/maps/place/8...2!3m1!1s0x486119fe3f068995:0xe9c557fdb53ac986