How strong is your foundation?
#5
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iTrader: (1)
Foundations are fine....the walls are still standing and go a good few feet below the damp course and floor level.
Its teh floor that has failed, not the foundations! Thats sufferred concrete rot. Old house with solid floor, maybe not adequately steel reinforced either. If you note its all failed around where it meets the wall, so its probably an issue with damp comming up the walls and into the floor combined with lack of support and increased weight loading from a newish kithcen and heavy appliances (i.e range cooker and vibrations from a loaded washing machine on spin).
Stick some block and beam lintols in and pour down a new floor in and it'll be fine.
PS note the gas pipe is still connected...I hope they turned the gas off
Its teh floor that has failed, not the foundations! Thats sufferred concrete rot. Old house with solid floor, maybe not adequately steel reinforced either. If you note its all failed around where it meets the wall, so its probably an issue with damp comming up the walls and into the floor combined with lack of support and increased weight loading from a newish kithcen and heavy appliances (i.e range cooker and vibrations from a loaded washing machine on spin).
Stick some block and beam lintols in and pour down a new floor in and it'll be fine.
PS note the gas pipe is still connected...I hope they turned the gas off
Last edited by ALi-B; 29 March 2012 at 11:49 AM.
#6
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iTrader: (1)
TBH honest I wouldn't know how a kitchen fitter or floor tiler would check the soundness of construction of an existing concrete floor. But the report did say a surveyor picked up on something about the floors and I think this is the reason why the insurer is refusing to pay out - any excuse and they'll use it to get out of paying - thats the core of their business strategy.
I remember our integrated garage had a thin-spot in the concrete where a square metre area was only a few centimeters thick, directly under where the nearside front wheel of the car parked on top of. That could have failed at any time as it was flaw during construction. The rest of the floor was solid though...needed to hire a bigger pneumatic kango to break it up as the electric kango wouldn't touch it.
We only found out when we dug up the floor to address a heave problem due to underground water flow and clay/ash soil infill expanding pushing out the gable wall. The actual root cause was replacing a tarmac solid drive with a shale drive, so surface water drained through it and under the house! The only sign of this happening was gable end brickwork below the dampcourse shifting.
Cost a fair few bob to fix, including a huge underground concrete barrier across the front of the house to prevent underground water flowing under the house. Drainage, replacing soil infill, repointing brickwork, new garage floor, and tarmacing the drive.
Problem now is next door had their tarmac drive replaced with shale....and guess what - now our back patio is shifting! Coincidence?
Last edited by ALi-B; 29 March 2012 at 12:17 PM.
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#9
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@SamUK, don't think it's an extension, just a refit in a 1930's house.
The earth under the floor must have been washed away with time? otherwise there is nothing to counter the earth pressure on the outside of the foundation brickwork.
The surveyor may have checked for mesh with a covermeter and detected no reinforcement.
The earth under the floor must have been washed away with time? otherwise there is nothing to counter the earth pressure on the outside of the foundation brickwork.
The surveyor may have checked for mesh with a covermeter and detected no reinforcement.
#15
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#17
Just to clarify - I have been completely misquoted in this article. The whole point of the story is that we paid £500 for a survey by connells who said the floor was in good condition - they incorrectly identified the construction as suspended timber, I wasn't aware it was a concrete floor until I fell through it! After the collaspe, we contacted a structural engineer who inspected the property - he noticed other key defects in the house that were not mentioned in the homebuyers report. We are taking legal action against Connells for their failure in a duty of care to us - however, they are so guarded by caveats this is a very difficult process. Our issue with Direct Line is that the floor cannot be deemed as inherently structurally defective as it functioned for over 85 years (the concrete has been age tested), the structural engineer we appointed concluded that the final cause of the collaspe must have been ground movement of some sort - i.e, SUBSIDENCE, which is an insurable peril.
- Rosie Kennedy, Northampton, England,
- Rosie Kennedy, Northampton, England,
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