While watching "Help! My House Is Falling Down" on TV last night, with a very preggi Sarah Beeny 😉
I am sure they mentioned that 30% of UK properties suffer from subsidance?
WTF! 30%, is that right?
Or, was I distracted in some way by Sarah's huge bump?
😉
with a very preggi Sarah Beeny
Another one?
Jeez, she's a machine 🙂
we could have a straw poll to see who's houses are suffering from subsidance.
My house does not have subsidance.
My porch is on different footings from the rest of the house and there's some cracks in the motor where the two join but we've been told it's not subsidence. Not sure which camp I fit in then.
Maybe she's visited 30% of the UK's households.
She's not a wee lass you know.... 😉
My house is not subsiding physically... Financially may be another matter! 😕
I think most houses suffer from an amount of settlement which produce cracks further down the line.
Depends on whether you'd class that as settlement I suppose.
Well if it is the case, think I will double check what my building insurance covers with a bit more interest when it comes up for renewal next time 😉
No subsidence here - that I know of! Settling cracks in the plaster since new, but no massive middle of the wall subsidence cracks.
That programme should be renamed:
"Help! I'm too stupid to have paid for a full structural survery before I paid lots of money on a death trap house!"
Will still watch it for the nicely preganant Sarah Beeny though 😉
subsistence/settlement is only an issue when it is differential. I'd imagine that since construction far more than 30% of uk homes have been subject to an amount of subsistence, given that they are built on trench foundations generally.
Utter bollox! As above, settlement maybe but not subsidence! Imagine the cost of insurance if that was the case!!!
on the basis that 1 in 3 houses doesn't have some sort of underpinning work going on, I think that's an overstatement. maybe that number may be / have been affected at some point but once remedial work has been done I'd have thought that would fix it long term.
Does she also include the vast number of higledy cottages and town houses that haven't got a straight wall in them but have somehow managed to stay upright for 3 or 400 years?
The number of houses that are being built on flood plains, etc. - that's a different matter......
excuse my ignornace, but what's differential subsidence about and how's it different?
She's not a wee lass you know....
What, not even in pregnancy?
With the number of kids she's having, I'd say 30% of Sarah Beeny will be suffering from subsidence before long.
onza - differential settlement is when one part of the building settles quicker than another, due to different ground conditions (eg sand on one side, clay on the other) or big trees growing (or being felled) causing the soil to become desicated or saturated. Then you can get fun things like frost heave occuring. if your house is built half accross the footprint of a former structure that can cause problems.
don't worry, most things can be fixed.
Settlement = movement of foundations caused by compaction of the ground by the building's own weight. If properly designed this will be uniform and thus not a problem.
Subsidence = movement of foundations caused by an outside influence, e.g. groundwater change, trees, mining effects, nearby excavations, broken drains etc. Usually won't be uniform thus a problem.
100% of building suffer from subsidence/settlement/movement (interchangeable depending on context i reckon). It's the scale that counts. I guess lazy journalists could pick any figure out of the air that they wished.
As a pal on my Civil Engineering degree course said "I wish I'd done Mechanical Engineering, the art of making things move, rather than civil engineering, the art of trying to make things stay still."
cheers guys. Does make me wonder how much of a probelm my porch is. All the houses on the street do it. Somebody once said something about them being on different footings/foundations or something. From what's been said above, it doesn't sound too serious.
Bay window from my victorian terrace was removed by a german bomb in WW2. Few cracks visible in the attic but hasn't moved in the 3 years I've been watching it...
I always wonder what suddenly makes buildings that have been sound for a hundred plus years suddenly start to subside.
And was I the only one asking why on earth the people who bought the georgian house last night hadn't got a full structural survey done?? Surely on a G2 listed building that needs renovation it;s common sense...
Onzadog - your porch sounds like it has suffered from differential settlement, i.e. it's on shallower foundations than the house, and has settled by a greater amount being on slightly softer ground. It's probably reached a stable point by now and won't settle by much more, so not really a long term problem. Whoever told you it wasn't subsidence was probably correct.
onza - your porch motar maybe cracking because its not tied in to the main house. Vertical joint between the house and porch? If the crack is diagonal then you might have a settlement issue.
And was I the only one asking why on earth the people who bought the georgian house last night hadn't got a full structural survey done?? Surely on a G2 listed building that needs renovation it;s common sense...
"Lets buy a dirst cheap falling down property, and we'll forgoe the survey so we have more money to paint the walls in pretty colours!"
These people seem to be more money than sense though - as do many of the house owners on the series, I don't think any of them have had a survey done, wouldn't be entertaining if they had would it?
@Onza, have you tried zipties and/or gaffa tape yet?
The crack is a bit diagonal but across the top of the porch. Most of the crack is straight. No cracking on the wall of the main house. Think someone mentioned tie-in before. Guess I'll have a go with the duct tape and zie ties later then.
Onzadog - Member
cheers guys. Does make me wonder how much of a probelm my porch is. All the houses on the street do it. Somebody once said something about them being on different footings/foundations or something. From what's been said above, it doesn't sound too serious.
Onzadog, tim41 and farmer giles are both right, but also, seeing as the foundations for the porch were put in after the foundations of the house it could be that the porch has settled since it was built and so has moved slightly in relation to the orginal house. Settlement always happens when a new structure is built on land, regardless of location, soil conditions, foundation types etc. It's just a fact of life. Even if the new structure is tied in to the old with wall ties or similar.
Chances are it settled in the first couple of years of it being built but hasn't moved since. you could repoint the gap and see if it reappears, if it does, its progressive movement and get someone in, if it doesnt reappear, you've just repointed the cracked brickwork and prevent any further moisture ingress to the building, happy days!