Oh no, don't start with that, we got one of those too now - used to be flat though, so maybe I don't need to worry over that as well?!
Wonder which I need most, a weather man or a lawyer?
Take Care, Gnube {too thick for linux}
Absolutely. I find if I understand the job I can often get it done a) at a third the price b) and know its all good. c) and play with the design options to make maxiumum use of however the thing is laid out/constructed/etc. and d) sometimes do things the pros couldn't.
Knowledge is power in every area of life - yes, that too.
Regards, NT
MM... IMM... any connection do we think?
Nah I don't think so, Mcneil makes IMM look extremely knowledgeable and polite, a bloody good bloke...
I seem to remember making a comment about thinking before posting before thinking some time back. Nobody heeded it, of course. Way back when, one Mr. Marks suggested a period of some minutes sitting on one's hands before posting would be a grand idea. In the last year the signal to noise (which has become noise to signal) ratio has worsened to the extent that the newsgroup is in serious danger of becoming unusable. Unfortunately there are people on this newsgroup who, having nothing to say, say it. This, of course, dilutes any vestiges of credibility they may have, and the astute subscribers to the newsgroup already know that anyone who contributes more than half-a-dozen articles a day is a wittering idiot. Quality rather than quantity, please. Darryl Huff's "how to lie with statistics" is rather less than
150 pages long, but it is one of the best books I have ever read. It may be coming up to its 50th birthday, but by reading it you will learn more in a morning than you ever did in a year.John Schmitt
-- If you have nothing to say, or rather, something extremely stupid and obvious, say it, but in a 'plonking' tone of voice - i.e. roundly, but hollowly and dogmatically. - Stephen Potter
Do you see me in dark corners as well?
Only in my worst nightmares.
I am really happy to know I frighten the hell out of you. You have made my day.
Its not so much fear, as an undending vista of featureless grey.
The sort of colors they paint un snotty unis.
You know, sunday afternoon, its raining, you have read all the books 10 times, heard all the albums 100 times, seen all the DVDS and you turn on the TV and get 'songs of praise'.
And you realise what Hell really means. Being condemned to listen to your turgid opinions for eternity...
The problem with you is that you think the snotty uni educated you, and nothing else will. That is sad. You must read all my posts 4 times each. Google and read them all again - 4 times each. This is for your own good.
Corect!
It never.
Gasp!
Can't help the shameless plug, but if you want to see some *real* structural problems, take a look at Caerphilly Castle:
It's a shameless plug because Caerphilly is my home town and I'm working at the castle at the moment :-) I have absolutely no connection to castlewales.com by the way, other than applauding it.
Hwyl!
M.
In message , Grunff writes
How big are the cracks altogether? (At their widest) When was the porch built? Is the floor inside the cottage look like it has raised up very slightly?
What could be happening is that the porch is 'rotating'; it's weight could be pressing down on the earth outside the wall and heaving it up inside the wall if you know what I mean. This would result in the external wall's 'foot' moving off the vertical leading to an exaggerated movement further up. Any bits of debris falling down vertically along the edge of the partitions would keep wedging it out also. The porch would tend to sink less where it is attached to the main wall because of friction between it's (the porch) wall and the main house wall; this shows as a lack of cracks between the porch and the main wall. The roof will tend to hold back the top of the main wall so it 'bows' as you have described. If the house is on a slope and the porch is on the down hill side then this is very likely as most old houses on slopes had an element of 'cut and fill'; back wall built on solid ground and the front wall built on spoil excavated from the back.
I'm *not* an engineer so don't take this as 'proper' advice; Insurance company's and mortgage company's tend to like ppl with bits of paper to write it all on other bits of paper.
May well be that the porch is still 'settling in' :) Probably best to shell out a couple of hundred quid to any old chartered struc eng with lots of PI ;)
The original cracks have long been filled - but would be around
20-25mm. The new cracks (about 2 years in the making) are about 1-2mm.
AFAIK at the same time as the house, ~1930.
The downstairs has two back rooms (the area of interest). One of them has a wooden floor. The other has a concrete floor, which had a big crack righ acoss it, like it had dropped about 30mm at one end.
You may be onto something here. The porch floor is decidedly unlevel (slopes away from the house). But having said that, the porch walls aren't enough off vertical to match the floor.
Bingo - on a slope, with the porch on the downhill side.
Noted - but if the problem is indeed as you diagnose, what solution would you suggest? Underpin the back wall + porch?
He'll be here on Tuesday :-). I'll let you know what he says.
Thanks for your thoughts.
The original cracks have long been filled - but would be around
20-25mm. The new cracks (about 2 years in the making) are about 1-2mm.
AFAIK at the same time as the house, ~1930.
The downstairs has two back rooms (the area of interest). One of them has a wooden floor. The other has a concrete floor, which had a big crack righ acoss it, like it had dropped about 30mm at one end.
You may be onto something here. The porch floor is decidedly unlevel (slopes away from the house). But having said that, the porch walls aren't enough off vertical to match the floor.
Bingo - on a slope, with the porch on the downhill side.
Noted - but if the problem is indeed as you diagnose, what solution would you suggest? Underpin the back wall + porch?
He'll be here on Tuesday :-). I'll let you know what he says.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Unless the floor is sinking independently of the walls. It's sitting on the same stuff. Any indications? Gaps under skirtings etc?
Don't you be calling it a 'diagnosis' in public! ;) Underpinning could get pricey; cheaper than a rebuild though, depends on how much digging it needs to get down to some decent stuff. Worth trying bolted rods first just to see if it works. A mil a year isn't exactly scary.
Yeah; be interesting :)
NP
>
There's was no skirting, so it was difficult to tell. I suspect the back wall did drop by 30mm or so shortly after the house was built.
That's kind of my feeling - buildings move. As longs as they remain stable, I'm happy.
Nice pics, I assume there is no record of attackers attempting to mine the walls at that point to account for it? I ask because we recently got around to visiting the Castle in St. Andrews (we had visitors to show around) and they have both a mine and a counter mine which is still intact and you can go down into them. Hacked out of the rock too.
Peter
Yes, I tied in the end gable wall of my daughters house earlier this year. It's an end terrace. Only just found this thread, I'll try to find time to give you the details tomorrow.
Phil
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