Subsidance?

[Kelly Meek]

Hi,

I first noticed a crack in my son's bedroom about 8 weeks ago. This has progressively got wider and more crack are appearing, near both windows, the bathroom under the bedroom, the hall way and now the kitchen. This is a council owned property and they have arranged for cctv of the drains. While i am very grateful this is happening, I am concerned at the rate in which cracks are appearing over night. I discovered two new ones since friday. This is really concerning. I understand by looking at planning permission that two houses have been granted to be built about three metres away from the side of my property, so the ground is going to be disturbed even more. I'm pretty sure the surveyor thought i was over reacting but its got much more worse since his first visit. Do you think it looks like susidence? Regards Kelly.

 

[John D v2.0]

I think you need to stress to them the rate things are progressing, cracks that open and close every season are ok, but new cracks that get wider quickly are an indication that there's inadequate support for the house and it's not going to recover by itself.
Looking at the drains is a good start, if you have a water meter check if it's spinning when no water is being used.
It could be some material is being washed out.
Things would have to get extremely bad before anything would actually fall or collapse, but you still want them to take it seriously before the damage gets too bad, after all the house is one of their expensive assets.

 

[bobasd]

youve got cracks on the inside an cracks on the out side of the wall.it can be a bad sign havin cracks on both sides of the same wall.
horizontal cracks are worse than vertical cracks.
.
repairs have been tried in the past an itshows on the Tyrolean render.
an besides all the window openings in the wall thers an extension nockthrough below.
disturbance could have been caused by the fitting of new Pvc windows.

the timber lintel over the window opening that looks as though its been shrinking - not that it had much of a bearing seat to start with. 150mm bearing each end is recom for a lintel.

 

[Footsoldier888]

Obviously it is a concern and subsidence is happening more now as it rains after so much hot weather. However they are settlement cracks at the moment I think and are not of immediate concern in terms of making the house unsafe.

Subsidence is in very general terms cracks big enough to get your hand in. If any open up that wide it is time to get immediate help at that point.

 

[bernardgreen]

Has the surveyor been back to compare the present amount and size of cracks with what was there at his first visit ?. I would ask him to make an urgent return visit to make that comparision.

 

[^woody^]

It could be one of several causes (although you can forget the planned new builds thats irrelevant), but it does not matter as you are a tenant and the council will deal with it.

The most important thing for you to do is keep records of times and dates and names of whoever you speak with or visits, as if the correct repairs are not done, then you can claim compensation from the date you first notified the council about it. Remember that the council are responsible for redecoration once the work is done regardless.