Why would this 100 year old house collapse like this?

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

This story caught my eye because it is quite near me and I walk through street after street of London terraces like this every day.

I can't remember anything like this ever happening before.

not a Daily Mail link

The gable wall and the party wall (reinforced with quite a lot of chimneys) are looking OK, and the ground floor front wall might still be standing. This fits my guess that the roof pushed the walls over.

You see the same thing in house fires, once the roof timbers burn through (boo to ceiling holes for downlighters!) though I believe that in most parts of the UK, the fire service usually arrives before an ordinary domestic house gets so damaged). I am very keen on fire protection for the stairwell, which many people having loft conversions grumble about.

I can't imagine why they would "deliberately" let it collapse? There is only a finite amount of space. All the surrounding streets are the same sort of terraces. What would be to gain from rebuilding from scratch?

You'd be surprised what people do. The amount of buildings (often listed) that are purposefully damaged beyond repair simply because the owner wants to build/extend/replace and can't get the permission any other way....

more pics on the BBC

Yes, it's the roof. Coming down at the top and out at the eaves.

Wallpaper on the party wall suggests there was a loft room of some kind.

"Merle Fraser, whose mother lived in the house for more than 60 years before it collapsed, said: "It is sad. I know she would be heart broken.""

That's pretty sad - seeing that happen to your old childhood home.

ABC - I think my firm dealt with the legal fall out from that case.

Hopefully, however dodgy, the builders will have insurance. I'd imagine most householders would know to ask to see evidence of insurance?

kirin Oh really? I was wondering the other day what had happened to the people in those houses and if insurance paid out.

I live pretty close to that part of London and lots of houses around there (including my own) are underpinned and lots have subsidence, it's something to with the soil in the area and it being clay heavy, so maybe that was something to do with it, although you would have thought the builders might have checked it first!

ABC - yeah, if we are talking about the same thing, insurance covered it.

We came home one night about 20 years ago to find the fire brigade and emergency scaffolders propping up the house next door in our terrace. It was being refurbished and the cowboys had taken out supporting walls. It didn't collapse, but it could have.

Homes Under The Hammer wasn't on then but every time I see it I'm reminded of the buy-to-letters with the house next door. There are more of this fuckwits now.

They'd have taken down our house, the one on their other side and probably destabilised the whole terrace. Not to mention killing us if a collapse had happened while we were inside.

That really is open plan living ...whoops....

was being refurbished and the cowboys had taken out supporting walls.

Just... Why??? How can people be SO rubbish??

What makes me laugh (probably the wrong word) is all the detail about it being bought six months ago for £650,000, but recently valued at £690,000 - even though it was a building a site! That tells you everything you need to know about why it collapsed - housing in London is not somewhere to live it is a way of making money. London is full of over-extended monstrosities. Homes under the Hammer has a lot to answer for (and never was a programme better named).

Maybe I'm stupid - but surely the owners must have known what the builders were doing.

I'd be seriously pissed off if I were the immediate neighbour. They've been evacuated and there must be structural concerns about their house now.

They've been evacuated and there must be structural concerns about their house now.

Possibly, now that mortgage lenders are so picky. But where I live and in other UK cities, a lot of demolition went on by the Luftwaffe or people clearing up the aftermath. At both ends of my Victorian street there are 60s buildings that were built on bomb sites. One of them is listed, which my house isn't. You can see the outline of the chimneys running from ground to roof where the next door house was demolished on many of the terraces.

So it can't be an insurmountable problem to competent builders. But obviously some builders aren't competent and some owners are stupid cheapskates. You don't expect your house to collapse in peace time.

You'd be surprised what people do. The amount of buildings (often listed) that are purposefully damaged beyond repair simply because the owner wants to build/extend/replace and can't get the permission any other way...

You don't get planning permission for listed buildings by damaging them, you just get made to rebuild or face prosecution. A house near in our London neighbourhood conservation area (not listed) was partially demolished without planning permission and the council got a court order to force a rebuild.

This house collapsed at the front, extensions would be at the back, so it's of no benefit to them.

More likely just crap builders, and naïve owners.

ooh I wondered if there'd be a thread on this- saw it last night on twitter, just up the road from here

we were saying (South East London has a fuck of a lot of building works going on and has for donks, skips on every street) how suprising it was that 1. this almost never happens and 2. so why would it happen here?

Lots of dodgy/inept builders around- you'd think if it was that easy to twat a house by mistake, you'd hear about it more often?

So an architect friend of mine lives around the corner from there. I texted him earlier to ask what he thought and he said that he's thought that house hasn't looked right for a while. Lots of subsidence in that area, apparently - the sturdiest houses are the 1950s bomb site infills which have proper foundations.

Apparently.

you'd think if it was that easy to twat a house by mistake,you'd hear about it more often?

You do hear of it quite often, at least I do. This London house near me collapsed last Autumn, and one collapsed the previous year in the same area, killing a builder.

I think the increase is due to the general trend of knocking down walls to open up space, and building basements. For that you need a good architect/surveyor, builders who know what they're doing, and correct supporting structures.

God, who'd have thought Duffy would have made so much money?

It makes me think of that Grand Designs house where they excavated the basement to make a disco.

I bet all these folk who knocked down all their internal walls pre kids will be putting them all up again when their 12yos start watching fucking Big Bang Theory and 4 Music from 8am till 9pm on a loop

(my builder told me and told me to knock the walls down: 'EVERYbody else does it!'- I knew better tho )

I feel for the next door neighbours. Wonder what will happen to their home?

my builder told me to knock the walls down

When my sister bought her first flat in London about 20 years ago, it was in a block of tall, terraced houses.

My mum and I did the plans for the renovations, but the first builder my sis hired told her she could knock down the walls without supports. We told her that was wrong & to use the builder we used for our developments. I don't think she really believed us.

Luckily an architect friend of hers warned her that, not only did she risk bringing down the walls of the house in which her flat was sited, but potentially the whole terrace too.

Penfold - neighbours insurance company would cover any damage and then she the builder / owner to recover their money.

Lots of stories in the press about people suing one another really means insurance companies suing other insurance companies. Unless someone doesn't have insurance, of course.