I know its a long shot but does anyone know the cost of repairing subsidence in a domestic property?
Does anyone have experience of repairs from these companies who use an expanding foam to fill and shore up the foundations? I understand these companies can perform a less invasive, faster repair compared to the alternative way of digging out foundations.
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Before we bought our house, we were very keen on a vic terrace but it had subsidence on the back wall.
Not sure what it was they would do, but the surveyor reckoned on £20k to cover all eventualities, plus the subsequent insurance issues.
We gave it a miss.
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There will be a builder along shortly, possibly from Devon ... possibly the North of the county, possibly called ...?
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Not for a while, he is out stopping a house falling down a tin mine.
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Out to lunch with a client more like it :)
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Where is a builder when you want one.We had subsidence in our second house outer wall sinking.Building society paid halve the cost there surveyor hadn't done a proper job.
All the floorboards up and about two weeks to sort it out.
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That certain builder will be munching through his umpteenth bacon butty, swilling tea and overseeing his slave driven bunch of hard done by chaps, then he'll knock off for an hour or three at the golf course or go shooting or...it's tough being The Squire.:-)
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You are right Gordon never met a poor builder yet.>:)
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I have some experience of this, but as the house concerned was a relatively new build and was covered by the NHBC scheme, I can't give costs.
What happened was that the original builder (a) failed to follow building regs with regard to the depth of footings and (b) there was a lack of communication between the builders and the local authority planning department regarding the special issues affecting the subsoil structure of the plot. Had both of these issues been addressed while the house was being built the footings would have been much deeper, or possibly piles would have been used from the outset.
I imagine the costs of dealing with the subsidence would have been massive, given that the whole house was affected. First the concrete floors were removed and about a further metre of soil beneath. Initially it was thought that drilling a number of holes beneath the existing footings and injecting these with concrete would do the trick, but when the concrete just disappeared into the cavities in the underlying chalk it was realised that piles would have to be used.
The technique was to drive piles (about 17 of them, I seem to remember) into the ground all over the existing footprint of the house and to keep driving until each pile met with a specific resistance. Then a horizontal network of rods was welded to the piles, extending under the existing footings, and the interior of the house was filled with concrete (about two metres of it), so that the floor level was restored, but, just as importantly, the walls of the house now rested on the concrete "raft" which had been created, supported on the piles.
Now, this is a "worst-case" scenario. The OP will not be facing such a disruptive procedure. However, I can't see it will be cheap. It's highly specialised work. I doubt whether "foam" would be used, but I have alluded to the concrete injection method, which I suppose could be carried out from the exterior of the house, if there's room. Some kind of detailed survey would be required to assess exactly what work is required. You will need to approach a specialist firm, not some local builder.
Last edited by: FocalPoint on Tue 13 Sep 11 at 14:29
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It'll be insurance issue won't it, i hope so anyway.
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Do you own the house currently? if YES
Is the house insured? if YES then typically the Ins Co foots the bill with an excess of say £1,000
If you do not own the house and are looking to buy then I wuld look for another house to do up without dealing with subsidence.
If you still want to take on a subsiding house be prepared for biggish bills - say £5,000 for professional advice / report based on investigation of the site. Then a bill from a civil engineering company to do the deed say £10-20K+ if it is a normal sized reasonably new house - a Victorian mansion????????????????
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I guess this is the process you are talking about;
www.uretek.co.uk/
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This may help:
Underpinning by traditional mass concrete to a typical depth 2.5m below ground level say £1000 + VAT per metre run of wall. So, say about £10,000 for a flank wall of a 3 bed semi-detached house. Add maybe £100 per metre run for paving or floors taking up and reinstatement.
Repairs to structural cracks in brickwork around £80 + VAT per metre run including local finishes, i.e. internal plaster or external pointing or render.
Room internal decorations about £1000 + VAT per room.
The insurance policy excess is typically £1000 but many newer policies are £2000 to £5000.
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This is the first house we bought when we moved from sowf lunden in 1987 (the week of the 'great storm'.)
We bought it from a builder who had wife trouble, he'd underpinned it on the LH side,
it passed the survey OK, ditto when we sold it on ... when you walk across the floor in the bedroom upstairs on that side, you could feel the slant!
Why did you buy a house down that road said my wifes g'father who had been a developer, they are all built on clay
:(
g.co/maps/p425k
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>>This is the first house we bought............
Is it really leaning that much, or is it an optical illusion?
If you look carefully down the RH side, the wall seems to be parallel with the neighbouring house.
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>>Is it really leaning that much, or is it an optical illusion?<<
In the case of that house, it only subsided on the SW corner + a little way along that side, you couldn't tell by just looking at the house except for the tell tale mortar which had been sort-of forced out from the bricks, and so it needed re-pointing.
The floor though, in that SW rear bedroom ... went downhill!!
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Also,
You need to know the cause of subsidence before considering the remedial method. For example you may be suffering clay shrinkage owing to the drying effect of vegetation (usually, but not always, trees). It may be landslip or even heave where the ground moves upwards. Or again, the granular soils or chalk may be being washed out by leaking drains or a leaking water main. The cause could even be settlement of made ground where it is being overloaded.
Only when you know the cause and its depth can you think about solutions. The simplest is fixing a leaking drain or removing vegetation, but you must find the reason first.
I can bore you senseless about subsidence - so maybe ask mods to give you my email if you want to know more.
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate on Tue 13 Sep 11 at 16:28
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Thanks all for the input. I don't know the exact cause of the problem but it could be tree roots. To complicate matters the person concerned is having a problem with their insurance company over an old claim made years ago for a stolen household item which they reckon wasn't declared, even though it was because his NCD was affected and phone calls were made at the time.
He is concerned that the ins co is doing its best to wriggle free of a claim on the thinnest of excuses and he will have to have pay for the repairs himself hence the question of costs. I realise its a 'how long is a piece of string' question really and is dependant on many issues.
thanks again.
n.b the house stands at the bottom of a slope. Many years after its construction a new estate was built on the hill above the house and therefore all rain water runs off down the slope towards the house. Perhaps it weakened the soil over many years and tree roots have added to the problem. He is awaiting a visit from a surveyor...
Last edited by: TheManWithNoName on Tue 13 Sep 11 at 17:09
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From watching 'Help my house is falling down' subsidence is usually due to a) trees b) leaking drains/gutters c) crap builder. If there are diagonal cracks then look perpendicular to the crack and where it meets the ground. This is highly likely to point to the cause.
I have an extension that is falling away from the main house. Surveyor didn't think it was serious and said cracks were superficial. How wrong he was. Can stick my hand in one of them now....I suspect a combination of leylandii, leaking drains and rubbish foundations (only the very bare minimum of one metre deep)
Unless you know the cause remedial work is pointless.... also if you cure it there will be a good chance it will all move back to where it was so no point repairing the inside until it has finished shifting.
Insurance company may ask for the crack monitors to be fitted to see if it is still moving as they generally only want to fix something which is still moving.
I'd be interested to know about the foam stuff too. But the risk of that is that they don't put the right amount in and it causes heave.
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A house we looked at buying (offered asking price plus a bit) had been underpinned. Surveyor spotted the front had been rebuilt - off new foundations we found in the end. And the party wall was also underpinned - found this out in building department of council doing my own search.
Work for some reason was paid for by the council. We declined to proceed but someone did buy it for the asking price (only £225k). But it needed a new kitchen, bathroom, decorating throughout and work to timbers in the cellar.
Likely cause was a huge tree at the back of the house right in front of the kitchen. It was only a stump but it had a diameter of about 4 feet! And to extend the kitchen it would need removing and the impact of the roots on a house already underpinned would have be concerned.
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costs of repairing subsidence - Stuu
