Air Bricks blocked, Cavity wall insulation and solid flooring....HELP!

[oldbutnotdead]

Take a spirit level with you next time you go.
Quite common for timber upstairs floors to sag in the middle with old age, repair can be a bigger job than ground floor.
Check floors, walls, windowsills, window reveals for level- it's rare for an entire house to sink, more common for one side or a corner.
If the place is rendered outside and plastered/papered inside, no sign of recent work and no visible cracks then more likely historic than active subsidence (this is where you commission a full structural survey if you have those suspicions - yes probably cost £1k but could reveal a horror show OR allow you to lowball the vendor .

 

[RRoxanneM]

Take a spirit level with you next time you go.
Quite common for timber upstairs floors to sag in the middle with old age, repair can be a bigger job than ground floor.
Check floors, walls, windowsills, window reveals for level- it's rare for an entire house to sink, more common for one side or a corner.
If the place is rendered outside and plastered/papered inside, no sign of recent work and no visible cracks then more likely historic than active subsidence (this is where you commission a full structural survey if you have those suspicions - yes probably cost £1k but could reveal a horror show OR allow you to lowball the vendor .

We have had 2 people out to the property so just waiting on the report back hopefully this week. I assume both have turned up with spirit levels! There are noticeable cracks in the bedrooms that come through the old wallpaper from the ceiling down the wall. It is an old property so its expected I suppose.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Assume nothing! The directions and sizes of these cracks are important- generally diagonal more likely to be bad news

 

[RRoxanneM]

Assume nothing! The directions and sizes of these cracks are important- generally diagonal more likely to be bad news

They are diagonal :/ There is a few pics

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Does the bay run full height or is it just ground floor? Are the bay windows original timber or modern plastic? If plastic, try a magnet in the poles between windows, see if there's lots of metal in there (not infallible alas, some bay poles are aluminium), if the top windows are openers do they open and close easily and smoothly (no jamming). When you open the window, have a look in the frame - there'll very often be a manufacturing date for the profile (which may tell you a lot about the honesty of the vendor)
The other 2- which walls are they in? They aren't big but look relatively recent, possibly purely caused by the place standing empty and (presumably) unheated for some years.

 

[RRoxanneM]

Does the bay run full height or is it just ground floor? Are the bay windows original timber or modern plastic? If plastic, try a magnet in the poles between windows, see if there's lots of metal in there (not infallible alas, some bay poles are aluminium), if the top windows are openers do they open and close easily and smoothly (no jamming). When you open the window, have a look in the frame - there'll very often be a manufacturing date for the profile (which may tell you a lot about the honesty of the vendor)
The other 2- which walls are they in? They aren't big but look relatively recent, possibly purely caused by the place standing empty and (presumably) unheated for some years.

The crack to the bay window are in the front bedroom (first floor). There are cracks either side of the wall from under the window sill to the ground and also hair line cracks running from the ceiling to the window sill. I know that the windows have been replaced twice. The original ones where a wooden brown frame, then wete then replaced to white pvc with 5 square window panes at the top (3 of which open, side, middle and side) and they have been replaced again with 4 window panes at the top (2 of which open each side) I assume the load bearing weight when replacing the windows hasn't been sufficient which has then caused cracks in the wall to the top bay?

The other cracks are the back bedroom. There has been an old lady living in there since March this year when the house went up for sale and its been occupied by her I assume since the 60s. So I assume its been kept warm as that room showing the cracks was her bedroom.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Yes to the windows quite likely not installed with any or much attention to the loadings especially on the ground floor-look for any bowing in the top of the frames. The 'structure' of those fullheight bays is sometimes not that substantial either (bits of 2 x 2 with tiles hung on the front) so there may be elements of sag coming from them.
The cracks- without being able to see the whole building it is difficult to draw any definitive conclusions but they don't look particularly active or particularly big

 

[cdbe]

Sounds like a typical mouldy old probate house that needs gutting - great at the right price if you want to make it your own or DIY it.

Hopefully you can get the price down, but if you're already in the right ballpark it will become attractive to investors and developers who won't care so it's probably more to do with how far along you are in the process and how keen the family are to offload.

If you're paying for loads of superficial work, with labour and material prices at the moment, compared with the cooling of house prices, it might make more sense to buy a suitably refurbished house instead.

Seller, if they have any sense, will answer "don't know" on the solicitors questionnaire - a bit like the criminals who just say "no comment"

 

[foxhole]

Vents are installed thru solid floors to provide air flow to the suspended floors in the rest of the property so not always an indication of previous suspended floors.

 

[RRoxanneM]

Vents are installed thru solid floors to provide air flow to the suspended floors in the rest of the property so not always an indication of previous suspended floors.

Is it normal to have solid floor in the livingroom then suspended in the diningroom and hallway? Also I cant see how air bricks would give any ventilation through a solid floor to the suspended in the adjacent room unless it was ducted?

 

[foxhole]

Is it normal to have solid floor in the livingroom then suspended in the diningroom and hallway? Also I cant see how air bricks would give any ventilation through a solid floor to the suspended in the adjacent room unless it was ducted?

Yes it may be ducted, soil pipe the usual choice.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Yes it may be ducted, soil pipe the usual choice.

Either take a torch and have a good look through the airbricks or straighten out a wire coathangar and see how far you can poke it through the airbricks (may need a load of wiggling, in solid walls there is sometimes an airbrick in the inner skin).

EDIT Torch isn't going to work due to the insulation you mentioned. Coathangar will pierce pir, polystyrene and rockwool quite easily.
Have to say none of the retrofit concrete floors i've come across had any ducting from the airbricks, all the ones i've had to dig out had been very poorly done (including one where the floor joists were entombed! Pics somewhere.....).