Cracky house!

[Pizzatrip]

Hello hive!

I viewed a property this morning that has numerous cracks in the plaster (almost entirely upstairs). There’s no cracks visible outside. The house has been empty for a year and backs onto a railway (if that makes a difference). All floors seem level and doors all close properly etc.

Obviously I’d get a full survey if we were to proceed, but I’d be keen to hear your thoughts? Would you run for the hills, or does it look maybe ok? It’s a detached 60s/70s house

@Pizzatrip is it in the one room or down one side?

That is quite a lot of cracks for a house of that age, even for a cracking house. They are also in some unusual / possibly worrying places.

Questions you should be seeking answers to are:

When was it last plastered? Unlikely to be due to this, but worth checking.

What was the situation with the tree? And what remedial work has been taken?

Any prior insurance claim?

Any structural work undertaken?

The house is definitely worth looking at, but be aware that any significant work to underpin the foundations can limit your mortgage options until a set amount of time has passed. I think for a friend who had a similar issue on a similar property it was something like a 10-15 year window.

Good luck. Looks like a nice property.

If that was structural,it would probably have gone into the cornice. There doesn’t seem to be any bowing above doors ( always a bad sign). Yes , get a structural survey, and a bulk purchase of decorator’s caulk.

Here’s a diagram of cracks.. pink dots are cracks, blue blob is rotten soffit, light green is current conifer and laurel, darker green blob is ex-willow. Trees are not quite this close in reality.

Thanks for this. Think I’ll fire a load of questions off to the estate agent ans a first pass and hopefully the sellers can answer. It’s a probate though, so we’ll see how much they can/will answer.

OK so all first floor and mainly at the front. Could be water damage from soffit.

Ones towards rear of house might need a closer look in the roof space or just one of those things.

You are doing all the right things.

Exciting stuff though if all easily fixable! It looks like it has the potential to be lovely!

Thank you so much 😊. Going to ask all the questions and go from there. I’m assuming if it is all from the soffit then it’s not a big deal? Just fix the soffit, fill the cracks then all good?

Wow, you'd think the vendor would have got that investigated and fixed before marketing it really.

Would think so, but worth a full structural survey if you get that fat to rule out. But make sure when you commission the survey you are very specific about wanting to look at this. We got caught out once and the surveyor just updated a previous report for another client... we were not happy!

I wouldn't have thought that the trees were causing a problem as the cracks are all away from where they are.

If the house was built in the 70s and is still standing there is nothing to worry about.

a huge motor vehicle is running by your house regular/

Our house developed quite a big crack running down an internal wall. We were concerned so had a structural engineer come and have a look at it, he said it was down to roof spread and just recommended regular maintenance.

Obviously those are a bit different but it's easy to get worried about something before having it checked over properly.

It’s a quiet cul-de-sac, but does back onto a busy train line.