Basically he reckons that with having a dry winter and spring the trees have needed to get moisture for the roots somehow and so take it from the ground. Our soil is basically clay and so with the dry whether it is already contracted and taking more moisture out of it contracts the soil further, resulting in our house moving.
If he can prove the trees and the soil are the problem, then it will mean going to the council (via the insurers) to get them to do something about them. I have been to the four neighbours either side of me and they are noticing different things in their houses too, from new cracks to doors not closing properly etc... (all within the last two weeks). If the council don't want to do anything then we will need to underpin the house around the roots. None of us want to lose the trees, but another solution is taking all trees down and then putting other trees in place which won't be as bad e.g. silver birches.
Here are a couple of photos.
This one is the extension at the back of the house, just outside the kitchen. The gap goes the whole way through to the outside, this gap is about 1 cm, but it is about 2 cm on the outside.
This is the ceiling at the back of the house, you can see it looks like the back wall has moved away from the ceiling and the ceiling has remained in place.
This is the other side of the back window (on the left looking into the garden), the gap on this side is not as wide as the other side.
The whole thing is going to take about a year, as they need to monitor how the house is moving over the winter with more and less moisture in the soil. What a pain, but hopefully it will get resolved without too much of a legal wrangling with the council!!!! Will keep you informed.
20 comments:
I hope you get it sorted and quickly. Is the house safe to live in? I think that would be my biggest worry, if it has all happened in a space of 2 weeks its very quick. Sorry I dont mean to be all doom, gloom and despair, Im sure Im not saying anything you havent thought of.
Oh Pauline that is awful - you can really see the gaps!! Well I really hope it gets resolved without any problems with the council. Imagine trees causing that....rather amazing.
hahaha how funny Lisa you and I posted at exactly the same time!! hahahahah rather scary that is!hahha
That is shocking! I just hope the council play fair with you. It's certainly going to be a big job, but hopefully the house won't move any more.
Lisa I had thought exactly the same thing and yes it is safe to live here and the house is unlikely to fall down. Our neighbours offered us some spare rooms in their house if needed, but I said if ours is a problem then yours is too. I told her I was moving in with our neighbour across the road instead!!!!
I did check that with the engineer if it was all safe and he said yes, and will even be safe to be here when they are doing the remedial work too. Just not sure I want to be!!!!
Laura, I know exactly what you mean, one neighbour was really shocked when I told him how much damage we'd noticed in such a short space of time. The engineer said you can see how tall the trees are (about 50ft), he said double it for how far the roots spread (that is particular for poplars) and they will definitely be reaching under the house.
Rhoda, I'm with you about hoping they play fair. We're in a conservation area and my next door neighbour was saying he phoned the council last week about cutting back some branches that are encroaching into his garden. They told him he has to put in an application for planning permission!!!!!!!! It's going to take 12 weeks. Ridiculous.
This is slightly different though, because these trees run half way down the street, so they will have potentially half the street (about 20 houses) complaining. It's going to cost them a small fortune to fix this!!!!
The engineer said the house is likely to move a bit more, but they'll monitor to see how much. I noticed more cracks appearing in the back room today and wallpaper that is starting to come away too.
We're praying for a really wet winter, sorry everyone!!!!!
Not really what you need, right now, eh!
But it sounds like you're on the right track - we'll pray the engineers can prove it's the trees - if they can do that, there'e nowhere for the council to hide...
I really hope the council play fair and accept responsibility. Thank goodness the house is safe and great that you can stay there while the work is being done, I know you dont want to but it gives an indication of how big or small the job is. If it was major stuff you would have to move out. Another point - its a good excuse to come back to good old norn iron for a holiday while its being done!
DHG, that's our thinking too, that hopefully the council will not be able to hide about this. The same issue arose at the front of the houses about 10 years ago and most of the trees had to go, which is why there are only trees at the entrance of the street. Apparently the council took down the trees and their insurance dealt with the whole issue too; quite quickly. My neighbour two doors down was telling me about it the other day.
The problem is I keep walking round the house and noticing more cracks and gaps and wondering how long they've been there.
Lisa, thanks. It is good news, my neighbour across the road was telling me about her friend who had to move out for three months while it was all being sorted out. To be honest, we're not hugely worried about it, there are worse things in the world to happen and actually maybe this is exactly what I need right now. God gives us what we can cope with and maybe He's giving me this situation to get my teeth into and I've been running around all over the place talking to neighbours and sorting stuff out etc. Haven't done that much since Jan.
All prayers are greatly appreciated.
Pauline I don't mind at all if you have a really wet winter . . . as long as we don't have to be a part of that answer as well!!!!!!
But the way things are going here, I'm thinking things are going to have a really wet winter with or without your prayers:-(
Rhoda, you do live on the west coast though, so you should be used to the rain. It really doesn't rain that much on the east coast in comparison!!!
I guess I am used to the rain Pauline, but even for me the last 7 weeks have just been too much! But - today there's been no rain, not a drop! Only the second day since the 13th July! The ground is still like a marsh - but we've had a blue sky for big parts of the day:-)
It's really rained non-stop for the last 7 weeks!!!???!?!? Glad you've had some sunshine today though.
Yes, it has rained constantly! And the forecast is for steady rain for the foreseeable future - great! I hate not being able to take Tom to the park as he loves it at the minute, every five minutes he's asking to go.
GGGGRRRRRRRR, no-can come out from the insurance people to assess the damage until NEXT Friday!!!! They've said if there's a cancellation then we'll be the first to have it. Plus our telephone has stopped working!!!!!!
See the treasure in every trial:-) Thinking of you!
Hope you get a cancellation, and BT are quick to fix the phone
Stuart fixed the phone last night, the cleaners had knocked something and broken a bit off the connection. Plus we're with Virgin and they were sending someone out tomorrow. Cancelled that. The phone is a lot quieter, but at least it's usable until he gets a new connector.
The assessor people phoned this morning and they're sending someone out on Monday now. So that's better too!!!! Hurrah, something good for once.
However, I am noticing a lot more cracks etc, so I am glad they are coming out quicker.
Thats good about the assessors coming out sooner, if they dont get on the phone and give them what for, after all if you missed a payment they would be straight on to you, so dont let them off with anything. Hope the new cracks are nothing too serious, you are probably constantly scanning the walls and ceilings now, some of the cracks could have already been there but you maybe hadnt noticed them or paid no attention to them before. I have a crack on my bedroom ceiling that has been there for about 25 years and another on the kitchen wall thats about 20 years old, so try not to get too paranoid.
Lisa, that is exactly what we're doing. Every time we see a crack we're thinking "how long has that been there?". However, there are so many wider, larger, longer and new cracks and gaps to make it all a lot more than coincidence. So we'll see what he has to say on Monday.
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