I was being a bit tongue in cheek , but you wont know when it moves the millimetre from needing strapping to needing rebuilding.
A Structural Engineers report with diagnosis and requirements.
A builders invoice for completion of said requirements
A Structural Engineers Certificate or letter of satisfaction with the work.
Remind me where you are, Grunff? I have a pal who is a structural engineer and is distinctly lacking in BS when explaining things to the likes of me - and is happy to give DIY instuctions. He travels a fair bit judging by the rate he gets through cars. He's based in west London.
The leaning tower of Pisa has been moving gradually off centre for several hundred years. It was only recently that they figured that if they didn't do something it was going to come down sharpish.
I wouldn't depend on the argument "well it has only moved so much in so many years". The straw that broke the camels back and all that.
PoP
Did you buy this house without a mortgage, out of interest ? I can't imagine any lender approving a loan without further investigation (nor the valuer missing a large bulge). Fwiw, the bulge in the outer wall of my house was of the order of an inch, over about 10' in height. I was informed that renewing the wall ties was a practical solution up to an inch or so. Beyond that, it was rebuilding time. Not in itself a huge job as the outer leaf is non-structural, but as it was above a large conservatory, not trivial either.
Indeed, however we'd still miss you! ;O)
Take Care, Gnube {too thick for linux}
I'm in mid Devon. That would make for an 8 hour total drive, which is a fair bit. But thanks for the thought.
If your mate is down this way on other business, that would be very handy.
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.
I am pretty sure that they have some certification. Institute of structural engineers or summat. Round here ther is just one company, who everybody uses. The way I had it from everybody was 'if you use X, and do what they say, then you are completely covered' I did, and it cost me a measly couole of hundred quid AFAICR to get an aspect of my design fully qualified and specced out. I have a thick report on loadings and deflections and so on that is very impressive, and completely impenetrable, and satisfied the builiding inspector and the architect.
The thing is, it doesn't cost a huge amiount extra to use a big rod versus a small one, and they overspecify to cover their arses, so whatever they recommend won't be 'good enough' it will be 'massively more than good enough' and they make their money from the report and recommendations, not from installing extra bits at your expense.
No, we have a mortgage.
Don't know whether they missed it or just didn't care, but it seemed to make no difference to the lender.
This is a slightly different situation, because there's no inner/outer leaf - it's just one thick, solid wall.
If you read up on Eulers slender strut/slender column theory, you might get a shock. The amount of weight a fully supported wall can take, versus the amount an already bowed wall can take, are vastly different. The failure mode is catastrophic. I.e. once beyond a critical point, it happens in seconds.
Without knowing more about the actual loadings and causes, its not possible to say how dodgy this all is. That's why you need a structuiral engineer.
Just spoke to them, and they're sorry, but they just can't recommend anyone.
There's no "may" about it.
There is an institute, dont have the name to mind at the moment.
At a pinch you could contact the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors - a building surveyor probably isn't what you want, but they shoudl be able to point you to the correct Institute.
The Institute will most probably have strict rules on the minnimum amount of PI Insurance that members carry (including run-on after they cease business), and this shoudl be one of your questions when evaluating candidates, but not one of the first ones!. If you go to someone and one of your first questions on the phone that you ask is about their insurance cover they will probably think that you have some ulterior motive and may refuse the business.
If you get a spec from them and a certificate of completion or statement of their satisfaction with the work or whatever then I see no reason at all why you shouldn't DIY it - don't see that a certificate from a builders would be necessary.
cheers Richard
-- Richard Sampson
email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk
Sign of the times, I'm afraid. By recommending someone they could probably be held jointly liable if things went wrong.
Yes - I'd say so too. ;-) And in any case, a local man *should* be the best bet as he'll be familiar with the quirks of regional differences in construction and soil conditions etc.
I'll certainly mention it.
Boy am I glad this is not my problem. The above advice is all sound. Don't make a move until you have had good professional advice and don't do anything until it all agrees.
A 30 year old house will be sitting on a concrete pad if there is no rock to base a foundation on. It's pretty nearly total building practice in the UK these days. Inspection is going to be a problem if you have cavities that have been filled with heat insulation. Inspection means taking a brick or block our of a corner and looking inside. Obviously tere are high tech ways of doing it these days that do little damage. I don't know what they are.
If the problem is not the foundations then it is almost definitely the ties. The roof is pushing the wall outwards and the floors are holding it all back; the joists are countering the force of the rafters only if the walls are tied. Unfortunately, joists are not usually tied into the walls but just rest in situ.
Once it has been established that you are in danger you may be forced to leave. The house may even be condemned. I hope that doesn't happen to you and if the bow isn't too serious this is all the more reason to get it surveyed ASAP.
It's 70 years old (1930s), no concrete pad, no cavity.
Not sure about the roof theory. The wall is bulging most at 1st floor floor level, not 1st floor ceiling level.
As I said, rebuilding wouldn't be such a bad thing. As long as it's justified.
Mm. Its not taht hard - acrows remove and replace basically.
Is it timber or brick?
If we did rebuild, we'd build the new house about 20 yards away from the existing one, then knock down the old one.
Stone. Lots of chunks of granite, with *lots* of lime mortar in between.
Walls do. The very first house we bought about 30 years ago had this happen to a boundary wall 6ft high and about 30ft long. Damp got into the brickwork. One night we heard a loud bang and looked out to see the wall totally demolished and lumps of ice sticking to the debris. I would never have believed it could happen without the experience of having seen it.
-- Alan G "The corporate life [of society] must be subservient to the lives of the parts instead of the lives of the parts being subservient to the corporate life." (Herbert Spencer)
Lovely. If you do rebuild, and need a shoulder to cry on, give us a shout :-)
I also discovered I can do a good job on design, apart from the structural bits, which I left to the architect..Someone asked me 'who designed your house?' and after a lot of thought, I realised that how it looks and how it works is entirely me, but how its built is 80% the architect, 5% the structural engineers and 25% the blokes who built it.
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