Wildfood campsite

[Busybee Profile]

We live in a Victorian house, next to a railway line so have lots of movement. We have some fine cracks on the inside, nothing on the outside. Old houses are noisy, there is always a creak or draft blowing from somewhere.

Whilst I must have been terrifying to have the cupboard fall off the wall, to my untrained eye it’s probably more to do with how it was fixed to the wall rather than anything more serious.

I have to admit to not having any wall cupboards in our kitchen, we have a Dutch dresser where all the good stuff is kept, our everyday stuff is in the base units under the worktop.

I don’t suppose you could ask any neighbours if they have had problems, logically if there was subsidence would it not affect more than just your property? As I said I’m no expert, but just trying to look at things from a different perspective.

Re your trip to Sheffield, if you can’t leave your home in a safe condition maybe you shouldn’t go. If you go you will be constantly worried about the house. Your mother has not had you around for almost four months, what can another week hurt? Maybe you need to put yourself and your anxiety at the top of the important pile for a change?

I hope I don’t come across as uncaring or bossy, I just want to offer support.

Ref trains..........they are getting busier.

BB

[Stokey Sue Profile]

When this place was surveyed the surveyor told me nothing useful, said the ladder to th attic should be fitted with a handrail which would have made it unusable, and that the bathroom suite was dated and should therefore be replaced

It was actually a not very old repro Edwardian suite which was considered quite the thing in older properties at the time
Didn’t ask for his opinion on interior decor - the bathroom was the only room not in urgent need of work!

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

Will look into both things, Pat.

I don't think any cracks have appeared outside.

I think it's relatively normal to have a bit of moevement and fine cracks in an old house...? I have to say my wardrobe is quite lopsided. Question is whether its progressively getting worse.

Do you have a link for the company?

Is it this one?

https://rawfurnitureuk.com/

Yes ... this is the company. I have attached the piece them made for under my stairs .. it is imperial measurements as everything else (1000mm wide) was too wide. I gave them the outside measurements also the width and depth of my 4 baskets, so the thickness of the wood was critical. You wouldn't want the bottom shelf, or the feet (also positioned exactly to miss my power and phone sockets. Wood finish to suit you. The piece in my bathroom was stained dark to match the tiled floor. Top one is the cabinet for my bathroom .. it only has one leg as the back and left hand side rest on the boxed in pipework.

Edited to add: the top half of the bathroom unit is more the style I had in mind ... it just stands on the base ...

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

Will look into both things, Pat.

I don't think any cracks have appeared outside.

I think it's relatively normal to have a bit of moevement and fine cracks in an old house...? I have to say my wardrobe is quite lopsided. Question is whether its progressively getting worse.

You only have to watch Homes under the Hammer to realise that you are right in assuming that minor cracks in an old house are common. Even cracks on the outside don't necessarily spell doom, unless the crack actually goes through a brick (rather than cracking round the mortar)

[aero280 Profile]

Is your house in a terrace - semidetached or in a row of similar houses? If so, have any of you neighbours had any problems with subsidence? If not, I wouldn't worry. South London has a lot less clay than N. London. So subsidence is normally less of a problem.

Any trees close to the house? Poplars are among the worst for removing ground water. But if you have a tree, try to keep it the same size. Don't cut it down, that would risk the opposite of subsidence as the ground swells up again as the water seeps back.

The cheap way to check for subsidence is to stick something small and flat across the crack, but only stuck on one side of the crack. Then draw around the edge of whatever you stuck there. Look at it from time to time and see if it's moved. If it has, leave it for another period because it might move back. You only need to worry if the movement is consistent in one direction and increasing. But all buildings move. They are designed to! Most move back again. Movement could be seasonal, you may need to look at any measurement for a year or more.


From a look at your cupboard, I think that the fixing was inadequate. It looks as if the screws were mostly fixed into the pink plaster. If your house is Edwardian, the pink plaster wont be original. It may be quite thick, in which case you will need longer screws to get into the brick wall. If it's not a brick wall, it may not be suitable to just hang a cupboard without fixing battens across the wall to spread the load, and fixing the cupboard to them.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

When this place was surveyed the surveyor told .....that the bathroom suite was dated and should therefore be replaced.

I rest my case! That said, I would always have a report done before buying a house.

[Suffs Profile]

A structural engineer is often much more useful than a surveyor.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

If you want a mortgage, you need a surveyor’s report
Condition of contract

I did deal with both surveyors and structural engineers when part of a housing cooperative, and when not tied to the peculiar contracts associated with.ppa mortgages they were far more useful, especially when given craft beer

[Pampy Profile]

I got a mortgage on a new house without a surveyor's report - it was a long time ago, though.

[Suffs Profile]

The surveyor for this house, doing a full structural survey, identified an electric fire as gas, failed to spot major problems with a drain, identified a non-existent problem with the roof, and failed to spot a structurally significant crack in a brick corner pier ... this was spotted by my son, whose father was a ‘village builder’.

Needless to say I sought a refund of a proportion of his fee ... also needless to say, I didn’t get one.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I got a mortgage on a new house without a surveyor's report - it was a long time ago, though.

My place was approximately 140 years old at time of purchase, I was quite interested in knowing if the roof was firmly attached

[Earthmaiden Profile]

I got a mortgage on a new house without a surveyor's report - it was a long time ago, though.

The mortgage people usually send their own - they did on mine over 30 years ago - but I was under the impression that it was a good idea to get your own done too and that if anything came to light later that they missed you could claim if you felt it appropriate. Suffs' experience suggests that's not always the case!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

My mortgage lender expected you to find and pay for the survey, but it had to be a surveyor acceptable to them, can’t remember how we established that, think he just had to be registered with his professional association and nor on their black list

[Pampy Profile]

I got a mortgage on a new house without a surveyor's report - it was a long time ago, though.

The mortgage people usually send their own - they did on mine over 30 years ago - but I was under the impression that it was a good idea to get your own done too and that if anything came to light later that they missed you could claim if you felt it appropriate. Suffs' experience suggests that's not always the case!

Because it was a new house, it was covered by a 10-year NHBC guarantee, which is why I think I didn't have to have a survey.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

Because it was a new house, it was covered by a 10-year NHBC guarantee, which is why I think I didn't have to have a survey.

Ah! That's different! Mine was 100 years old at the time.

[mistakened Profile]

We now have a new car, the phone call came at 5 00 pm, I think that it is was just due to Cypriot timing or lack of it. Deb says that driving up the hill "was a dream". I have been going through the handbook. it is all very well telling me to use my seatbelt correctly, how do open the fuel tank cap?
I shall have a drive around the village later on.

moira

[icelesley Profile]

Good Morning campers. It has been raining during the night, the plants look like they have had a good feed the sky is still very grey so I expect more rain is on its way, but apart from a few rumblings of thunder in the distance late afternoon yesterday the thunder storms didn't arrive here.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

Morning all! . We had rain if the puddle in the road is to be believed but not as much as I'd expected. More on the way this morning, the air feels cooler and breezier and the garden won't be parched. No excuse not to blitz the house today.

So pleased you got the car, Moira! You are so wise to investigate the petrol cap in advance of any visit to a garage, I have been left baffled on forecourts several times.

I see that the Brit masses will be allowed to descend on bits of Europe now. Perhaps our beaches will be quieter. I think I'm going to stock up on essentials again .

Hmmm, the 99% chance of rain in this hour appears to have been and gone in the time it's taken to write this and the sun's out again. I was really hoping for a cool morning with a good breeze blowing though the house.

[Suffs Profile]

Good morning campers

We had a small storm overnight but the windows stayed wide open ... now it’s just drizzly ... if it dries up I’ll sow some more Swiss chard and red radicchio ... otherwise there’s bread and pizzas to make ... pizza seems to have become our regular Saturday supper

Glad the car arrived and that you’re pleased with it Moira

[herbidacious Profile]

Morning. Dull and windy and forecast. Just picked about ten slugs off my strawberries. They are near the water irises and long grass has appeared too. tempted to strim the lot Would quite like to get rid of the water rises but that's quite a job and we have to think carefully about removing anything down the bottom which is prone to flooding.
I found quite a few purple French beans down the garden. Will have those with dinner

I don’t have much faith in surveyors either. I am not sure if they are incompetent or automatically play down things when they know it's for a house purchase. In the previous house there were brick pillars in the cellar. One was upright but not actually doing any supporting - they were supposed to be helping to support the front of the house which was on a slope (So at this point of the cellar the ceiling was only about 4ft high.)

As I said we had a structural engineer round. he charged £1000 and wanted another £5000 before he would commit himself to anything. We are a semi and have discussed this with both neighbours.
I think the pre house buying surveyor detected evidence of work to address some minor subsidence hence the verdict that there had been movement in the past.
We have a wisteria growing up the back but have been told this won’t be causing major problems and might make things worse if we moved it. The patio outside the back is uneven. Could be the wisteria or something else.
We could do with a new bathroom but husband is terrified of what will be found once we remove the floor tiles (which are probably too heavy). It’s right over the kitchen… But basically he doesn’t like spending money on making the house look nicer anyway!
Right today, I must try to find an empty box so I can empty a small cupboard to put the few bits of crockery we have left.

Re going to mother’s we now have a person lined up and a door on order so I hope that it will be done in time. We won’t get another offer to say in friend’s cottage. Just staying for one night potentially means she loses money even if we were paying (she insists on us just paying the cleaning costs) as she would normally take whole weekend or whole wee bookings. I suspect that she will be fully booked this summer anyway. If we don’t seize the opportunity then it’s a day trip or hotel or stay with my mother… technically we are not supposed to stay with her. And of course, I’d rather not anyway…(uncomfortable bed, 7am wake up call, only a hard chair or the floor to sit on his her sitting room, no door on the loo, bath that’s used to swill out commode pan, trickle of a shower, crockery and glassware that has to be washed before use, ever present, pervading smell of commode contents, constant need to vacate the room (which means standing in the kitchen or sitting on the bottom step) when she used the commode and the resulting smell after. What’s not to like…)

She has been gettign increasingly morose and resentful. I really think I need to go as soon as possible. I really do believe that her state of mind is partly what's keeping her alive.