Anyone a Structural Engineer/Surveyor?

[Drains]

Might (might!) be worth phoning the council, who may have plans of underground workings or records of subsidence in your area.
I've got some old gas board drawings of Scottish mine workings, with chance of subsidence and mining type (eg coal, iron, limestone etc)
If you want to find out for free, tell the gas board you think you smell a leak, then show them the cracks in your walls as a clue to why... They'll drag their plans out right away, have an engineer round, tell you everything you need to know except how much it'll cost to fix. Got insurance?

 

[Welderpaul]

Why does the gas board get involved with old mine workings in yon Scottishland?

 

[TechnicAl]

So they can blame them when their pipes break

 

[Jammy James]

have you seen the deeds because sometimes they show what type of ground it was built on. I.e marsh, old river bed, old drainage, ditches.

 

[stucktoweld]

I am not a structural engineer
An old master builder friend of mine who died a few years ago used to tell me
"Houses are like people they have to breath"
, they expand and contract with the weather. Old houses never had deep foundations, the chimmey breast are very rigid parts of the structure- if there is cracking around them that quite serious as the rest of the house can pull away from them a form of subsidence.
Old house were not designed for central heating but had a fire in the chimney most of the time for cooking and heating -they were better designed for how they were used then that these days.
Walls were rendered and painted with lime render and lime wash these were breathable materials modern paints plaster etc suffocate the fabric of the house. Stone, mud, dung, lime or clag
Modern cements can be to hard and unpliable
Central heating hurts old stone buildings to dry!
Drains and gutters leak, downpipes get blocked
They didn't have plumbing or sewers ? are these badly place, leaking blocked or decayed?
Have newish building be constructed nearby that may have affected the local drainage of rain water?
New housing estates that alter the natural drainage etc

If you can put your hand in the crack that is serious.
These are to my thinking worrying but need more investigation but might be settling cause by change of usage or some alterations that have affected a up to then sound property
Yes a structural engineer who KNOW THE LOCALITY WELL can help you understand what is happening, one who doesn't will probably get it wrong!
I understand you fear of calling in a builder best to know what's happening first?
Old houses are difficult to understand but Its been there for a couple of hundred years not reason why more another hundred or more with the right care and thought
Hope this helps

 

[pedrobedro]

I would contact your insurance and ask them to appoint a surveyor for you before you start spending money. Your mortgage supplier should also be an interested party.

 

[Sean]

Looking at the tile floor crack you can almost expect any new work in an old house to settle during the first 3 years as the timbers dry and settle. Cracks around the perimeter of a stud construction in an existing old house really arent much of a worry.

The cracking around the door in existing structure may need investigating especially if the wall next to it is one of the outside walls, or a wall has been opened out below.
Old stone houses are often full of cracks but for cracks to suddenly appear especially after structural work has been done need investigating. Even if the surveyor just comes, pokes it with his pen and says dont worry.

its Lath and plaster ceilings you have, not wattle and daub-same principle tho sticks supporting posh mud.

im not a structural eingineer but work with a couple of firms which do major structural work, last few jobs have been jacking up big Edinburgh town houses, taking out the supporting internal walls( 5 stories of Edinburgh's finest rubble walls above) and putting it all back down on massive steel frames and concrete founds, Just so they can have an open plan kitchen in the basement!....no cracks an any of the flats above.

 

[M@tt]

cheers for all the replies

well the majority of the larger cracks are round the edge of the edge of a stud partition wall between our bedroom and the bathroon and are up against the original external wall and orignal Lath and plaster ceiling, so seans comments are a little comforting (crosses fingers)

Anyway I've contacted the surveyor who did the full survey initally on the house when we bought it 3 years ago and said i'm worried about cracking that has appeared and he's agreed to come out and have a look.

Hopefully its something and nothing and if he says that then i'll be asking him to put that in writing incase its found to be something else further down the line. I've been meaning to have a word with my next door neighbours to see if they've expereinced any cracking also.

 

[stucktoweld]

Yes now we know its a stud wall against a original wall, one is stone the other is plasterboard very dis similar material its more likely that they have expanded and contracted at different rates. Old stone walls move (breathe) that's the way they were constructed bigger stones at the bottom smaller at the top So hopefully not so serious but good the surveyor will look at it
Hope the findings are positive