Plaster over crack

[Screwdriver]

should have chiseled all the plaster off round it back to brick to see whats going on . could have put mesh on with washers and screws over the lot and then plastered it .

Instead I am merely going to cover it up and because it has happened so soon after I did the work, I told them I won't be asking for any money (but I'd be disappointed if they didn't give me some).

We are neighbours and while I am trying to sell them some giant pots, I'm probably going to give them a load of terracotta ones I have going spare.

You are right of course but if they did decide to have that done (properly), it probably wouldn't happen for months (if you can even find a builder) and the patch I am putting on now will make no difference other than purely cosmetic. No harm, no foul.

 

[brightspark]

well you have patched it up .so if there is any movement its not your fault and just tell them it needs more in depth investigation . you cant do more than that

 

[a111r]

That's true about the lack of foundations and the voracious London clay.

My house is my 4th Victorian house. It's a large one. It is supported underneath by 'yard sized cubes' of concrete, rather like a ring beam or pile system today would do. The architect involved became the Local Council's chief 'building control' person, in the late 1890s.
I won't be buying another.

 

[Farside]

Like painting the Fourth Bridge.

The first three rotted away.

 

[gaz1]

Instead I am merely going to cover it up and because it has happened so soon after I did the work, I told them I won't be asking for any money (but I'd be disappointed if they didn't give me some).

You are right of course but if they did decide to have that done (properly), it probably wouldn't happen for months (if you can even find a builder) and the patch I am putting on now will make no difference other than purely cosmetic. No harm, no foul.

neighbours or not your not responsible for there foundations but

if its happening with theres it could be happening with yours its time to check yours

from the look of it the rear of the property is sinking

eg: staircase is normally to front of the house in old propertys

this means you either have water shortage so the clay is shrinking or at worse you have a sink hole happening

have they had any cellar works at all new builds on the property below ?

 

[Screwdriver]

Oh it is happening with mine too but I care less about a few cracks. There is one great big one at the front mind but again, it's not a structural issue. next door to me have a much bigger problem because next door to them just dug a massive basement (I was "involved" with tha too: https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/do-i-need-a-surveyor.76163/). Their walls are almost liable to collapse! Again, they are friends so I don't scare the bejesus out of them just say "ooh, you want to get someone to look at that" sort of thing.

Extreme weather is the culprit. Too dry or too wet is an issue but now it's always too dry AND too wet, so climate change will exacerbate the problem increasingly over the coming years. I'll be long dead before this old pile falls over though.

I think I will suggest the crack shown above is a permanent feature unless he has some substantial building works done. His only other option is for me to experiment with an expansion joint which might not look that bad if i can establish exactly where it should be without going down to brick. That is, if there is any brick! I have not really looked too hard at the architecture for this property which has had some substantial modifications at the rear.

 

[Seadog]

next door to me have a much bigger problem because next door to them just dug a massive basement

If it was my property I'd be very concerned. I'd have building control round at the double. Remember the property in Pimlico a couple of years back?

 

[Screwdriver]

If it was my property I'd be very concerned. I'd have building control round at the double. Remember the property in Pimlico a couple of years back?

I am always happy to help but there's a fine line with neighbours (especially) where offering help is like poking your nose in where it's not wanted.

While we're on the subject. Let's say I am in flat1 at the moment fixing the above crack, I just had to do a similar thing to their next door flat2 and this next pic is along the same line from the house next door to those two:

Really all in a straight line from one property to the next. That last one is horrific. It's where all of these houses have had extensions built on the back. On theirs, the outside wall has cracked and pulled apart a corner join like unzipping a zipper.

I mention this to all of them but it's not really my business to insist they do anything other than paper over the cracks.

 

[Seadog]

That's got the looks of subsidence, not settlement.

 

[gaz1]

just remember

anything over a couple off mm at the highest point is a dire warning to watch

once it reaches the point of full movement over a very short period of time is when the worry starts

im talking about 1" of movement in months or weeks can even be within years

 

[Screwdriver]

Not my house, not my problem.

Most likely an issue caused by the over officious health and safety <xxxx> who insisted one small recent extension needed half a dozen TEN METER pilings. The rest of Ealing is going up and down quite happily while these new developments are safely tied into 100million year old Cretaceous bedrock.

 

[brightspark]

get it dry lined out of sight out of mind

 

[Screwdriver]

Quick update.

It hasn't cracked off yet! Fingers crossed...

 

[Farside]

When the house falls down, that repair will still be standing proud amongst the rubble.

 

[zx9]

London is notorious for it plus there's been a fair bit of construction work with basements going in, buildings going up. These houses were built in the late 1890's...

Oh and they don't have foundations either. Built up off the clay.

Older houses in London do like to breath a bit as the clay expands and contracts with the seasons.

 

[Screwdriver]

I wouldn't mind so much but having said my houlse is a long way from this "fault line", my workshop isn't!

...and I have a new crack right in the middle of the front door. I have pictures but they don't really show the issue. I think this one is most likely due to a massive eucalyptus within a few feet. All it does so far is jam the door bottom so I chipped away the raised edge and I'll just keep an eye on it (and the lintel).

 

[the snooper]

Think I'd be taking it further if it's more then one property, could be a broken sewer causing ground problems

 

[Farside]

I wouldn't mind so much but having said my houlse is a long way from this "fault line", my workshop isn't!

...and I have a new crack right in the middle of the front door. I have pictures but they don't really show the issue. I think this one is most likely due to a massive eucalyptus within a few feet. All it does so far is jam the door bottom so I chipped away the raised edge and I'll just keep an eye on it (and the lintel).

I had a similar problem in a cottage I was renting (with a view to buying later) and the owner had planted a couple of Japanese Maples in the front garden, just about six feet away from the wall. The cottage, being built around 1910 or so, was directly onto the clay or whatever passed for clay there, and the trees were drying out the soil under the walls. As soon as I realised the problem (cracks appearing on the walls) I contacted the owner, who immediately gave the ok to chop the trees down. Over the next couple of years the problem largely rectified itself, but the cracks didn't magically heal, although they closed up.
I ended up not buying the place anyway, as the owner had a hugely inflated notion of what it was worth.

 

[Screwdriver]

Might even be the ridiculous and useless conceit a.k.a. HS2. They're tunelling somewhere under Ealing. Difficult to find an accurate map tbh.

Plenty of unusable and ambiguous maps but nothing accurate enough to pin blame.