When I bought my Edwardian semi three years ago there was some cracking evident where the exterior wall meets the ceiling in my hall and similar cracking in the room above level with the top of a door. The surveyor put it down to past movement. All seemed well until six months ago when my son moved in with me. Until then I had been the sole occupant. I noticed that the front door appeared to be gradually dropping and had to move the catch lower on the door frame. There has been further movement - the door mounted catch is moving down w.r.t the frame mounted side and I have noticed some cracking to the door frame from the outside. The crack in the wall/ceiling has lengthened and now reaches about 25cm back from the front door but is still about 3-4mm wide. My neighbour, a builder who has lived all his life in the road says most of the problems with cracks in walls in the road are down to leaking drains. Certainly the movement seemed to coincide with my son moving in and a consequent increase in water passing into the drains. I am wondering whether I should get a drain video survey done privately in the first instance or if I should tell the insurance company first. I assume that my insurer won't pay for drain repairs and I am uneasy about mentioning subsidence should it affect future premiums regardless of the outcome. If the drains need attention, does anyone have experience of drain lining with plastic. If I need to involve my insurers I assume I need to tell them about the cracks when I bought the house.
- posted
14 years ago