Though I'm still a bit confused; the bowing is between the rafters and the top floor joists. Surely if it were the roof memberss pushing outward the bowing would be from the very top of the wall, not further down.
Says a lot about the insurance business that we'd rather not claim on our insurance because the consequences will be worse than the cost of paying ourselves.
For complicated reasons I won't go into, it would have taken a lot to stop us buying this place.
Wisdom here I think. The crack is not old, but it appears the bowing of the wall is; there is a built-in wardrobe in the chimney breast alcove where the wall is cracked. The side of this wardrobe, now I come to look at it, is noticably thicker by about 3cm in the middle, ie it follows the line of the wall and nicely illustrates the degree of bulge. The built in wardrobes look about 10 years old and I suspect the bulge is older than that. The crack though, does look recent; it is clean and the wallpaper that has been ripped looks freshly ripped.
I think what I should do is pay for an engineer's report and ask him to consider it in relation to the roof problem and how to sort it all out as part of a loft conversion we will hopefully be able to afford in a year or two.
Thanks,
John
You can check for continuing movement by gluing a small piece of glass (microscope glass slide is ideal), across the crack, use a large blob of tile adhesive on the ends of the glass only. If it breaks within a week start to worry, and call everybody worry less as time goes by without it breaking. !
I have a crack in my loft near the chimney that's about 1ins wide. Its got a piece of glass across it that I attached when I first bought the house.
30 years ago still not broke.
Seems to me that a much better way forward is to get the minimum building society valuation done by the surveyor, and then commission a separate proper structural survey by an engineer. I did this recently; it only cost me 211 quid on a 60K house - much cheaper than the surveyor's version - and saved me a very expensive mistake. Doesn't catch timber/damp problems admittedly, but the most expensive problems (subsidence etc) tend to be structural anyway
Why on earth not? especially the insulation? I once had a valuation done years ago (which is perhaps the key to this!) where the valuation was based on the property being double glazed - it wasn't. A couple of letters to the surveyor (nobody legal involved) brought forth a compensatory cheque.
David
York Survey charge 4 quid for a crack monitor with a nice graticule, but over 8 quid for postage! Still worth it though I reckon as it would allow detailed monitoring over time.
I think anyone would! Actually though, the party wall *is* the back of the wardrobe, so it's hidden only by hanging clothes. If one wished to hide it, a skim of plaster and some paint would do the job, and the bowing outside is slight enough that I doubt many surveyors would notice it. Of course, I would never be so deceitfull.
John
"JK" wrote | > | ... the crack was well concealed behind a wardrobe. | > A cynical person like me might wonder if that concealment | > was intentional by the vendor :-) | If one wished to hide it, a skim of plaster and some paint | would do the job, and the bowing outside is slight enough | that I doubt many surveyors would notice it.
Specially with a nice bit of wisteria or pelargonum (?) growing up it.
| Of course, I would never be so deceitfull.
Of course not.
Selling the property in the spring or autumn when the days are shorter, and only being able to accommodate visiting surveyors in the twilight hours, would help too.
Owain
...even more so, without setting foot in said properties...
On an inside wall? Wonder what the buyer's surveyor would make of that...
If you buy a house with a fault like that and report to your insurers:
NT
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