Oh don't you worry - you're already on my list :-). Thanks.
There's a bit of me which would really like to rebuild - it'd be nice to get exactly what we want, rather than a big compromise. However, there's another (bigger) bit of me which would like to save 80k. So I'm kind of hoping we're forced down the rebuild route, but unless we have to, it's unlikely we'd do it.
The thing about our place is that the spot is perfect - 16 acres of south facing slope, with the house slap bang in the middle of it. That's why we were quite happy to buy it despite the awful state of the house.
The blue line is our boundary, and the pink dot in the middle is the house. We've no intention of moving, so we just have to figure out how best to use what we have - whether it's rebuilding or fixing up the existing house.
I suppose that might prove a cheap solution. Take down the porch and build a decent foundation under it. Then rebuild it, and it can act as a buttress to prevent further movement of the wall!
"Grunff" wrote | The Natural Philosopher wrote: | > The most important thing is that they have insurance. If you ask your | > local building inspector I am sure he will know who to use. | Just spoke to them, and they're sorry, but they just can't | recommend anyone.
Not sure if my posting last night made it through; to repeat myself:
You want a Structural Engineer who will be MIStructE (Member of the Institute of Structural Engineers -
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but I don't think they have an online member listing[1]) and CEng as well.
Owain
[1] They do have
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but it's a paid-for listing rather than a comprehensive register of members. You could try a local reference library for the IStructE Sessional Yearbook and Directory of Members
Thanks. They appear to be in very short supply around here. I've spoken to someone who sounds competent, who will come and do a survey next week. Will keep you posted.
Model planes - anytime. I do plenty of that. As for rabbits, SWMBO would have a blue fit. Very animal friendly, and very gun-unfriendly. Besides, the cat eats most of them.
Try a more tempting offer such as taking a model /helicopter and flying it upside down over Grunff's fields. He doesn't have one of those sit-on mowers and might welcome the grass being cut. ;-)
It doesn't take much for me to make a tit of myself. In this case it was a combination of your writing and my reading.
Where are you living? Germany? (......152899.news.uni-berlin.de) I think it unlikely that your house would have been built without foundations even in the financial straits of the time. I believe the building style would have been to find a rock base to put the house on and to incorporate a technique of some kind for limiting damp.
It is unusual for a 2 ft stone wall to have an internal and an external skin. 8 metres is not a gianormous edifice for a country house. Is it an old semi derelict cottage you are rebuilding? Or is it a town house you are struggling to hold together? Describe how the wall partitions have separated, please.
This crack showed 1mm extra bowing in an outwardly mobile direction?
This sounds suspiciously like the roof is pushing the house out.
If I were you I should check what supporting walls have been removed and whilst you are at it I would see how much the floor joists have got to go before they come out the wall at the worst part.
So what?s the problem? If you can afford it do it. If not, sell up.
I don?t know what I was thinking of in my previous posts. A '70's UK cavity wall semi, built on a concrete pad with failed wall ties ? butterfly shaped wire connectors to tie the outer and inner leaves of a wall together every 3 or 4 courses. What you are hoping to do is pull the house together with steel jacks. I think it is impossible to rectify the damage; the metal is to help stop it getting worse.
What sort of inane questions do you suppose belong on a group called UK DIY? You have been told to seek professional help you retard, go and get it.
Not much of a rock bed, but a shallow loose stone foundation.
And indeed it doesn't - just solid stone.
Yes - sort of.
Ok, the house has a square footprint. The only structural walls are the 4 outer walls. But intenally, it's divided up using block partition walls. The movement of the outer wall is evidenced by cracks where the interior partition wall (p) meets the outer walls.
In this diagram, the top wall (which represents the house's south facing external wall) is no longer very flat - it's slightly convex.
________________ | p | | p | | p | |ppppppppppppppp| | p | | p | ________p_______|
You'd think that - but the greatest deflection of the outer wall is not at roof level - it's at first floor floor level.
No supporting walls have been removed. The joists have a good few inches yet.
I have no intention of selling up, and every intention of implementing a fix. I just wanted the group's experiences.
Not much of a rock bed, but a shallow loose stone foundation.
And indeed it doesn't - just solid stone.
Yes - sort of.
Ok, the house has a square footprint. The only structural walls are the 4 outer walls. But intenally, it's divided up using block partition walls. The movement of the outer wall is evidenced by cracks where the interior partition wall (p) meets the outer walls.
In this diagram, the top wall (which represents the house's south facing external wall) is no longer very flat - it's slightly convex.
________________ | p | | p | | p | |ppppppppppppppp| | p | | p | ________p_______|
You'd think that - but the greatest deflection of the outer wall is not at roof level - it's at first floor floor level.
No supporting walls have been removed. The joists have a good few inches yet.
I have no intention of selling up, and every intention of implementing a fix. I just wanted the group's experiences.
If he waits till I am feeling less impoerished, he can have my old westwood ride on. Needs a lot of tinkering as its had a hard life, but it will do about two acres a day.
Grunff, if the wall is bowing out in the middle, then apart from simple settlement etc, its likely that the weight of the roof is downwards only. That is consistent with properly tied rafters and joists.
The Euler criteria for collapse has its first solution as the wall bowing centrally. This worries me enough to be glad you have an engineer on the case already.
If you are not familiar with dear old Euler, just get a playing card or similar, and place it on edge and press down on the top. Then bend it vertically and do the same. Euler did the math to show why in the first case it buckles, and in the second case it doesn't.
One of the few things I can remember form structural engineering lectures.
Odd that Tamer Shafik and Grunff posted the same thing from the same server in Berlin:
Now we have settled that the roof is pushing the wall out and that it is not a cavity wall. And apparently he has got an engineer on the job, can we know why he hasn't been able to supply us with technical information?
Another question he might ask his expert is why floor joists are always laid parallel to the rafters. I rather think that if he'd spent more time attending his public library -or the one at his nearest Tech, than attending to this thread he'd get as much information and know the qualifications of the advisor.
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