How is your house coping in the heat? (Old house, cracks)
Discussion
We live in an early 1900’s semi and it’s not a huge fan of the recent heat.
We’ve been in the house for 10yrs and it’s in pretty good nick but the last few years’ heat have really had an impact on the historical cracks in the house.
Hard to tell when last fully plastered but the patching we did last year hasn’t survived.
A full and professional redo is planned but it does concern me that it will continue to happen if this heat is a permanent fixture in future summers.
We’ve been in the house for 10yrs and it’s in pretty good nick but the last few years’ heat have really had an impact on the historical cracks in the house.
Hard to tell when last fully plastered but the patching we did last year hasn’t survived.
A full and professional redo is planned but it does concern me that it will continue to happen if this heat is a permanent fixture in future summers.
We moan about the UK weather but the sun is far more damaging IMO.
My house in Spain suffers far more damage with the sun/heat than our UK place. Tile grout gets destroyed in a few years in particular. Anything painted gets stripped in a few summer seasons. The sun and heat is brutal.
My house in Spain suffers far more damage with the sun/heat than our UK place. Tile grout gets destroyed in a few years in particular. Anything painted gets stripped in a few summer seasons. The sun and heat is brutal.
Well it’s dried out the massive damp area that had formed on one part of the roof, so that’s good!
Ours is 200 years old and, to be honest, it’s a very stable house. No movement, no cracking, no pointing falling out…..it just plods on. Some of the timber windows have shrunk and cracked the paint, but that’s about it.
Ours is 200 years old and, to be honest, it’s a very stable house. No movement, no cracking, no pointing falling out…..it just plods on. Some of the timber windows have shrunk and cracked the paint, but that’s about it.
Shnozz said:
We moan about the UK weather but the sun is far more damaging IMO.
My house in Spain suffers far more damage with the sun/heat than our UK place. Tile grout gets destroyed in a few years in particular. Anything painted gets stripped in a few summer seasons. The sun and heat is brutal.
Tomorrow morning I'll handover the balance of €3.5k to have my 130sqm terrace here in Spain re pointed.My house in Spain suffers far more damage with the sun/heat than our UK place. Tile grout gets destroyed in a few years in particular. Anything painted gets stripped in a few summer seasons. The sun and heat is brutal.
Our British house seem to cope with all sorts of weather, despite being 400 years old!
My previous thatched place was great in summer - the thatch insulated it from the heat outside and the overhangs shaded the windows nicely.
Current home is wood-framed and probably 400 years old originally but rebuilt in the 20th century and with extensions done in the last 20 years. Some parts stay cooler than others; the kitchen with a roof lantern is like a greenhouse so we avoid it. Probably mostly down to it being on clay soil but some doors stick or don’t close properly at certain times of year which will be down to differential movement. It’s character. I think the winter is worse for it than this heat.
Current home is wood-framed and probably 400 years old originally but rebuilt in the 20th century and with extensions done in the last 20 years. Some parts stay cooler than others; the kitchen with a roof lantern is like a greenhouse so we avoid it. Probably mostly down to it being on clay soil but some doors stick or don’t close properly at certain times of year which will be down to differential movement. It’s character. I think the winter is worse for it than this heat.
ours is 100 yrs old on foundations which are around 350mm deep on essex clay. no movement.......
I think they were built to flex a bit. for example theres a large yorkstone fitted within the brickwork above the front door,
in contrast we do paving and the ground movement gets worse every year now. 3-4 weeks of rain can see patios on concrete bases crack. the ground around them can literally tear them apart if its dry. as such our spec gets bigger and bigger and now its like civil engineering with a bit of paving put on at the end.
It's deeply distressing having to earn a living out of. theres a long line of cheaper people who either dont care or dont have the experience to know what's going on. we are in the realms of basically not knowing what to do. these patios in porcelain are so perfect that any movement is visible and of course deemed the installers fault.
we dont get much now due to the specs we do but theres still a bit. in recent years on paving groups online you see the same thing now, period of dry weather then people complaining about cracking.
I think they were built to flex a bit. for example theres a large yorkstone fitted within the brickwork above the front door,
in contrast we do paving and the ground movement gets worse every year now. 3-4 weeks of rain can see patios on concrete bases crack. the ground around them can literally tear them apart if its dry. as such our spec gets bigger and bigger and now its like civil engineering with a bit of paving put on at the end.
It's deeply distressing having to earn a living out of. theres a long line of cheaper people who either dont care or dont have the experience to know what's going on. we are in the realms of basically not knowing what to do. these patios in porcelain are so perfect that any movement is visible and of course deemed the installers fault.
we dont get much now due to the specs we do but theres still a bit. in recent years on paving groups online you see the same thing now, period of dry weather then people complaining about cracking.
m3jappa said:
ours is 100 yrs old on foundations which are around 350mm deep on essex clay. no movement.......
I think they were built to flex a bit. for example theres a large yorkstone fitted within the brickwork above the front door,
in contrast we do paving and the ground movement gets worse every year now. 3-4 weeks of rain can see patios on concrete bases crack. the ground around them can literally tear them apart if its dry. as such our spec gets bigger and bigger and now its like civil engineering with a bit of paving put on at the end.
It's deeply distressing having to earn a living out of. theres a long line of cheaper people who either dont care or dont have the experience to know what's going on. we are in the realms of basically not knowing what to do. these patios in porcelain are so perfect that any movement is visible and of course deemed the installers fault.
we dont get much now due to the specs we do but theres still a bit. in recent years on paving groups online you see the same thing now, period of dry weather then people complaining about cracking.
That's really interesting. I think they were built to flex a bit. for example theres a large yorkstone fitted within the brickwork above the front door,
in contrast we do paving and the ground movement gets worse every year now. 3-4 weeks of rain can see patios on concrete bases crack. the ground around them can literally tear them apart if its dry. as such our spec gets bigger and bigger and now its like civil engineering with a bit of paving put on at the end.
It's deeply distressing having to earn a living out of. theres a long line of cheaper people who either dont care or dont have the experience to know what's going on. we are in the realms of basically not knowing what to do. these patios in porcelain are so perfect that any movement is visible and of course deemed the installers fault.
we dont get much now due to the specs we do but theres still a bit. in recent years on paving groups online you see the same thing now, period of dry weather then people complaining about cracking.
I expect an awful lot of people just don't appreciate that all structures expand and contract quite a lot with either heat, humidity or both, and dealing with that isn't some unimportant "nice to have" feature ... it's absolutely fundamental to making or building anything that's going to last.
And if they don't appreciate it, they're not going to pay for it. And wishful thinking will kick in, so if one person says "it's got to be designed more carefully and that's going to cost" and someone else says "I can do it for 50p" a lot of punters will go fit the 50p bid and assume the honest tradesman was trying to to them off.
As a punter with a vague idea, when I see stuff like a newly laid porcelain patio with thin brittle pointing, I wince. How the hell is that supposed to remain perfect? And it'll look absolutely crap as soon as there is any damage. Half the trick is to design stuff so that it doesn't look awful as soon as there's some dirt or wear and tear.
TheFungle said:
We live in an early 1900 s semi and it s not a huge fan of the recent heat.
We ve been in the house for 10yrs and it s in pretty good nick but the last few years heat have really had an impact on the historical cracks in the house.
Hard to tell when last fully plastered but the patching we did last year hasn t survived.
A full and professional redo is planned but it does concern me that it will continue to happen if this heat is a permanent fixture in future summers.
I'd urge caution with your buildings insurance renewal as some are exceptionally averse to cracks of any kind and effectively expect perfection in order to provide cover.We ve been in the house for 10yrs and it s in pretty good nick but the last few years heat have really had an impact on the historical cracks in the house.
Hard to tell when last fully plastered but the patching we did last year hasn t survived.
A full and professional redo is planned but it does concern me that it will continue to happen if this heat is a permanent fixture in future summers.
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