Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

What do you think of this

2 replies

Lancscake · 30/06/2022 10:34

After 6 months of searching we've found a house we really like. It needs modernising and redecorating throughout. But there is a crack that is making us nervous. I wish I'd taken a photo but viewings are so quick you are basically in and out. It's a 1930s semi detached.

Anyway it looks like this one but it was slightly wider on the bit that runs across the ceiling. It's downstairs in the hallway. But there is a hairline crack in the same area upstairs.

Naturally our worry is subsidence. There was a large tree approx 20 metres from the back of the house but it's been chopped down in the last year because it fell down not because it was deemed to be causing a problem.

The estate agent says there's no history of subsidence and the area is not a known for high movement.

I know a full structural survey and additional reports would be needed but I wondered if anyone knew whether this type of crack is more likely or less likely to be something serious. If we go ahead with this house we will likely miss out on another house which is not perfect but good enough. If we end up with neither house our buyers will pull out as they've been waiting a long time.

What do you think of this
OP posts:
ComtesseDeSpair · 30/06/2022 11:02

Does the house have a modern porch added on? Our 1940s house had a hallway ceiling crack which looked exactly the same, and it was caused by the (awful) brick and UPVC porch the vendors had added, which according to the surveyor wasn’t founded correctly and had caused [some terminology understood by surveyors and architects] to the front of the property so that it had shifted (or something.) We had the porch properly rebuilt (which we would have done regardless) and they stabilised the front of the property at the same time. It wasn’t classed as subsidence.

It may well of course be not that at all!

Lancscake · 30/06/2022 12:06

@ComtesseDeSpair Thanks for replying. No porch added. UPVC windows have been added to the back of the house but the front still has wooden frames.

There's no other cracks. It's so hard to know. Argh!

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread