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Looked at a house yesterday with my BiL as a doer upper for him.
Both of us are reasonably handy and whilst the house is a shit hole and needs gutting and fully going over this isn't a problem.
One issues causing a bit of concern
External wall on the extension (extension is maybe 1950s)
Theres a crack running horizontal on one face. Starts at a corner and only runs down one wall. It's been rendered and then the renders been filed badly. The render on the corners blown from damp and frost as the concrete paths too high.
The fact its blown and loose means I can see some of the issues. The outer skin has a crack that's aprox 3ft in a seem. It's not moved in ages as the render repair is old.
Paths also sunk a little on the corner
Theres a septic tank past it and I think when they've dug the channel out its settled a bit and its dropped. It's not appeared to move in years. Internal walls are crack free and the floors good.
Would this put people off.
The paths needs coming up as its shit. I was torn between pointing it up... though it's a bit big. Or is it a case of a piling repair. Which as the house is cheap isn't the end of the world!
Any pointers or suggestions. Happy to go n get photos.
It's got a closing date of next week so we're just trying to decide if it's worth a punt!
Doesn't sound too bad, I certainly wouldn't be worried if I was sure it hadn't moved much recently. Lots of houses have cracks so if you discount them all it'll severely reduce your options. Hopefully it'll put a few others off and reduce the price.
As for repairs, I'd do as little as possible first. A bit of pointing and render over, maybe. Then see if it gets any worse. No point doing a big job if it isn't needed.
Could be something as simple as a wall tie/cramp rusting and expanding. You would be surprised what rust can lift! Seen it lift/crack some pretty big section of stone. Could also have been a bit of settling in original footing. Doesn’t sound major bad to me though
Caveat: I’m only a stone mason not a structural engineer but we deal with this stuff a little
Not a SE (but dad was an architect and a serial house refurbisher - and I've done a couple myself).
Crack looks old with no signs or recent movement and no cracking internally - wouldn't worry me.
Render can blow for a number of reasons, not just damp.
As long as there isn’t a leak or something underneath the foundations I’d just helicoil the cracks and then re-render.
Thanks all!
As someone who bought an end terrace with bomb damaged gable, it sounds easily managed/fixed. We got £20k off the house, spent £10k on structural work with 100 year insurance policy guarantee, and straightened a gable shaped like an open book.
Heli bars
Brick adhesive
Re render
Not at all unusual
I would be more worried about the septic tank, like how old it is, size and capacity, has it been serviced/emptied, how easy is it to empty etc and is it an actual septic tank or sewage treatment plant (there was a change in the rules in 2020)
As above cracks can be fixed pretty easily but this is an ongoing cost
Its Scotland, I think our regs haven't caught up. Certainly hadn't recently.
Cheers ya all😀