Slightly wonky house concerns
Discussion
Afternoon all
At the start of the year we moved into a semi detached 4 bed house built in 1900ish. We have a Level 2 survey done at the time, which highlighted a few bits of damp and the occasional bit of spalled brickwork, but nothing major.
Since then we have noticed that the floors in a couple of the rooms slope in one particular direction. The floors feel stable, but there is a definite slope. There are no obvious cracks inside the house, and the brickwork on that side of the house looks pretty good with no cracks at all. I'm therefore thinking it has been like that for a long time and is stable.
Obviously my wife is worried that he house if falling down, so I am arranging for a structural surveyor to take a look to see if something needs to be done (costing £500ish by the looks of it).
Does anyone have any experience of this? Are we most likely worried about nothing? If we did need to underpin, by the looks of it the insurance wouldn't cover it which is annoying.
If anyone knows any good structural surveyors in Nottingham feel to let me know. Cheers.
At the start of the year we moved into a semi detached 4 bed house built in 1900ish. We have a Level 2 survey done at the time, which highlighted a few bits of damp and the occasional bit of spalled brickwork, but nothing major.
Since then we have noticed that the floors in a couple of the rooms slope in one particular direction. The floors feel stable, but there is a definite slope. There are no obvious cracks inside the house, and the brickwork on that side of the house looks pretty good with no cracks at all. I'm therefore thinking it has been like that for a long time and is stable.
Obviously my wife is worried that he house if falling down, so I am arranging for a structural surveyor to take a look to see if something needs to be done (costing £500ish by the looks of it).
Does anyone have any experience of this? Are we most likely worried about nothing? If we did need to underpin, by the looks of it the insurance wouldn't cover it which is annoying.
If anyone knows any good structural surveyors in Nottingham feel to let me know. Cheers.
TA14 said:
Are the floors solid or suspended (or a cellar?) If suspended make sure that the engineer can see below the floors - could be a 'simple' case of rotting joist ends...
Suspended (ie we have a 2 or 3 foot cavity below the floor). I think he can see into this from a small storage area we have. I'm assuming it isn't rotting joints though as the floor feels pretty sturdy to me. 
I'd look at monitoring yourself for say 6 months to see if it changes. Simple enough with a laser level and a few marks on some walls.
“They don’t build ‘em like they used to!” Is quite frankly the biggest load of s
te I’ve ever heard as a new house builder and old house renovator.
I’ve squared up a sunken house-it’s ridiculously easy (as proven by a numpty like me doing it) but the key phrase is sunken and not sinking.
Even sinking isn’t difficult, it can just be expensive if there no other world being done.
If you’ve no cracks either appearing or opening then you’ve nothing to worry about. Old houses sometimes sink, especially given their meagre foundations and the local ground conditions.
te I’ve ever heard as a new house builder and old house renovator.I’ve squared up a sunken house-it’s ridiculously easy (as proven by a numpty like me doing it) but the key phrase is sunken and not sinking.
Even sinking isn’t difficult, it can just be expensive if there no other world being done.
If you’ve no cracks either appearing or opening then you’ve nothing to worry about. Old houses sometimes sink, especially given their meagre foundations and the local ground conditions.
Thanks everyone.
Air bricks, we seem to have a decent amount around the outside, all at ground level with gravel next to them.
I think we’ll get it checked. There is no evidence of any issues apart from the sloping floors. I’m pretty sure it’s historic but would be great to have this confirmed.
Definitely tempted with a laser, but I a pole saw only a few days ago so my random gadget allowance is gone for a bit
Air bricks, we seem to have a decent amount around the outside, all at ground level with gravel next to them.
I think we’ll get it checked. There is no evidence of any issues apart from the sloping floors. I’m pretty sure it’s historic but would be great to have this confirmed.
Definitely tempted with a laser, but I a pole saw only a few days ago so my random gadget allowance is gone for a bit
My house is similar age and a couple of floors slope in places. This was due to a severe woodworm infection 50 years ago that has since been cured but some floor timbers aren't what they once were were resulting in a few minor slopes here and there. Maybe your house has similar historical damage.
I’m renovating a house of similar age at the moment, it’s not level by a long way and one of the floors runs out by around 100mm towards the gable. However the gable wall is as straight as a die with no internal or external cracks, and the front windows are still pretty square, the roof is twisted but in the opposite direction. We think there has been some movement over the years, but also think the original builders must have been pissed most of the time during the build 
Sarkmeister said:
Thanks everyone.
Air bricks, we seem to have a decent amount around the outside, all at ground level with gravel next to them.
I think we ll get it checked. There is no evidence of any issues apart from the sloping floors. I m pretty sure it s historic but would be great to have this confirmed.
Definitely tempted with a laser, but I a pole saw only a few days ago so my random gadget allowance is gone for a bit
Air bricks, we seem to have a decent amount around the outside, all at ground level with gravel next to them.
I think we ll get it checked. There is no evidence of any issues apart from the sloping floors. I m pretty sure it s historic but would be great to have this confirmed.
Definitely tempted with a laser, but I a pole saw only a few days ago so my random gadget allowance is gone for a bit
Bear in mind if the engineer says his 500 quid visual inspection is inconclusive he will advise monitoring anyway
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