How do you know when your house is subsiding?

Utopia2308 · 20th April 2009, 11:10

Dear All

I have been reading your posts with great interest and am looking for some advice on how to speed up (mission impossible?) a claim against NHBC/Redrow for investigation into the movement cracks to our both 3 story town house and garage.

A claim was initially raise by the previous owners within 2 year of the house being built for a 1mm by 180mm long crack on the rear garage wall. We bought the property 6 months later of this claim knowing about the crack at which NHBC reported as being minor and no breaches our technical requirements were found.

Brief synopsis of our current situation. 1.5 yrs later we noticed that the initial reported crack on garage wall is now measuing 7mm gap, tracks not only along the morter line but also is breaking bricks and affect 3 out of four walls and to the untrained eye garage seems to be slipping or twisting off of damp membrane on one corner by as much as 15mm.
Cracks are now appearing on our exterior of the rear elevation of the house, which is connected to the garage on all 3 levels and these cracks are also mirrored on the internal walls, staircase is moving and ceilings are cracking. The site has had Redrow/NHBC visits and inspection pits were dug to look at the foundations one year ago and monitoring strips were sited on house and garage.

We fear that NHBC and Redrow are using delay tactics and are not taking seriously our concerns that the house and garage may be subsiding. Our house is an end of a terrace of 5 town houses and the inital surveyor said that because the house seems to have been built on a floating/raft foundation should it be suspected that it is subsiding all of the block will need to be demolished! Wether that is true or not who knows but obviously we want resolution asap of the unsightly cracks and for our fears to be either confirmed or laid to rest once and for all.

Many thanks in advance of any advice you can give me.

Kind regards

Tony · 27th April 2009, 19:11

I would be really worried. It is probably worth contactinig your local council, telling them you are worried about the structural integrity of your home. Your local council building control they will provide an emergency service.

Utopia2308 · 11th May 2009, 16:04

Hi Tony

Thanks for your reply. Can I post Photo's of the offending cracks on here to help people have an idea to what I am referring? If so, how do I do that?

Tony · 19th May 2009, 20:05

Hi, yes not problem post away

Tony

Utopia2308 · 2nd June 2009, 16:17

The rendor company made a site inspection together with the customer manager for Redrow and informed me that the cracking in the rendor could not be thermal and would only be caused by the block work underneath cracking, the block work cracking underneath would only be caused by ground movement.

At this stage we think it only sensible to get our own independent inspector out to ensure that we get a clear diagnosis of what is the problem with our house and what steps should be taken by Redrow/NHBC to rectify them. However, are unsure of the steps really to take and in today's financial climate we want to make a well informed decision on where to seek this independent advice from. Therefore, should we use a snagging inspector e.g Inspector Homes, or instruct a chartered surveyor or go straight to a structural engineer? And at what point should we contact a solicitor?

Tony · 4th June 2009, 21:43

I would get an engineer out to look at this specific and specialist area. It would be worth giving New Build Inspections a ring on 0845 22 66 486 to see if hey can help with this specfic problem, some of the inspector are from a structural engineering background.