I have a semi detached house, onto the open side I have a single story garage with a pitched roof and a small office room out the back. I believe it’s all single skinned brickwork, so nothing too fancy.

When at the waterbutt at the back corner of it all yesterday I spotted that as well as the damp course looking rough, there seems to be a shift in the brick on the bottom corner, looks to have come about 1/8 of an inch away from the line of the wall down from the roof. I am thinking possible subsidence as the rest of the wall looks ok, so looks like the ground has shifted.

I’ve lived there 10 years, garage was probably 5-10 years old when I moved in.

Appreciate this would be better with pictures, but is it likely to be something that can be fixed, or are we talking tear it down and build it again?

Dry it out and put up some photos. Then stop panicking. It’s very unlikely to be going anywhere fast.

Hah, when I see a wall splitting my initial thought was, ooh, what happens if I kick that and it falls over? Probably not a good first reaction!

1/8 of an inch !!

Unless you have fingers like a lady I wouldn’t worry …. on the basis that, a crack is potentially only a problem if you can get your fingers right into it.

Good luck

Very little to worry about. Worth trying to find the cause but likely an easy fix. Ground and houses do move a bit though and this sort of thing does just happen. Does the water butt have an overflow that takes water properly away? If that bit of ground is getting waterlogged it may be shifting a little. If you can’t find anything obvious (leaking pipe, damaged sewer, tree roots) then fix it (or not) and keep an eye on it

Subsidence can require simple underpinning to piling or full demolition. First step as above is to ensure the area is dry and that there are no underlying leaks etc and then enter into a period of monitoring. Take regular photos and measure the crack(s). Keep a diary.

If you see continued movement call in a structural engineer for a report.

I work for a local authority and we get this a lot. Sometimes, the ground settles and it’s just remedial works – patching to brickwork and internal cracks and then to the other end we have to do piling to entire blocks and renew concrete slabs….