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AIBU?

to lose sleep worrying my house is going to fall down?

9 replies

tooglamtogiveadamn · 20/01/2017 23:23

About a year and a half ago we had a wall knocked down in our house to change the teeny kitchen into a kitchen diner. The builder had the RSJ ready to go, however when the wall came down, he noticed that the wall was not supporting anything. The wall was running alongside the joist above and the wall upstairs, that ran in the same direction, was not directly above it, instead about a metre in front. (Incidentally the upstairs wall running in the same direction fell down with the force of the downstairs wall being knocked through so was rebuilt)
He concluded that we didn't need the steel RSJ so didn't use it in the end and said the supporting walls were the ones running perpendicular (the ones separating the 2 houses of our semi).
Anyway, I don't know whether it's psychological and ridiculous because the house is still standing 18 months later, but I can't stop feeling like the house is no longer structurally sound. I worry about taking too much stuff upstairs and making it too heavy! I lie in bed at night feeling like we could go through the floor any second. Please help me put my mind at rest.

Ps. We applied for building control within their 48hr notice period, however they did not check our particular request. About a month ago they wrote, following up the application to ask if we still wanted to go through with it.

OP posts:
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mum2Bomg · 20/01/2017 23:30

I'd deffo get it checked out...

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ChasedByBees · 20/01/2017 23:39

I would too - I know nothing about buildings but do know it would be worth it to put your mind at rest.

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hangry · 20/01/2017 23:41

if they had the RSJ and didn't put it in it's because it wasn't needed. bad things would happen to the builder if your house fell down. it's all ok x

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icelolly99 · 21/01/2017 02:21

Definitely worth getting your building inspector from the council out to see what's been (not been) done.

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dudsville · 21/01/2017 03:04

I would worry. I had a similar worry with my last house. It's still there, but getting yours checked might help you to sleep at night.

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kitschisabeautifulword · 21/01/2017 08:27

Do it for peace of mind OP. I really get what it's like because I've had similar and it was worth getting building control in to check it out. I sleep better now Smile

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minesapintofAFwine · 21/01/2017 08:33

Get it checked but honestly that sounds fine to me.

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tooglamtogiveadamn · 21/01/2017 12:45

Thank you.. Will building control mean ripping down all the new plaster?

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OhMrBadger · 21/01/2017 23:01

I'm a bit late to this but I would get it checked out. We had an RSJ put in 6 years a ago. We were away whilst the work was done. All looked great on our return and the builder handed me an envelope containing our building regs certificate...or so I thought.

Forward wind to last year when we put our house on the market. I finally (I know, I know) had a look in the 'building regs envelope'. No certificate for the RSJ installation. Everything else was there but not that one. Quick check with council showed it was never signed off.

We ended up having to have ceiling opened up to have the RSJ inspected by a structural engineer, at great expense, submit the report to the council and then have it all replantered using fireproof plasterboard (RSJ hadn't been fireproofed) making sure we photographed the process every step of the way. I then had to send the photos on to the council and waited anxiously to see if they would sign it off.

The builder had retired and gone abroad, so no come back there.

It was a right pain but had to be done in order to sell the house.

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