I renovated a 1930s house 3 years ago. The survey did not note any structural issues. The walls were covered in 2 to 4 layers of wallpaper and there were various layers of flooring also, with a layer or two of lino beneath carpets in the bathroom and bedrooms and 4 layers of lino/ lino tiles on the kitchen floor. Ceiling tiles covered ceilings. Hence no cracks would have been visible when the survey was done. I stripped all wall, ceiling and floor coverings. This revealed many cracks on ceilings and walls. All walls downstairs were skimmed, ceilings were skimmed and also boarded where particularly bad and there was some patching done upstairs. No cracks have reopened.
The bathroom floor slopes down towards the back wall and internal wall, where the bath had been. Under a 40 mm wide unit that is fitted level on the back wall there is a 3 mm gap to the floor at one corner and 13 mm at the other. The bedroom on the other side has a sloped floor in one corner down to this same point. The concrete floor of the kitchen below slopes down to the outside wall. The rooms either side have suspended wooden floors. There had been a crack in the concrete at the doorway to the kitchen.
I'm hoping that any movement is old. The house is on firm clay. There is a large silver birch about 6 m from the house, its taller than the 2 storey house now. The previous owners planted many trees, I removed one within 5 m of the house 3 years ago. The birch roots are visible above the grass up to about 2 m from the house.
Would the silver birch be close enough to cause subsidence? Should the sloping floors be cause for concern?
The bathroom floor slopes down towards the back wall and internal wall, where the bath had been. Under a 40 mm wide unit that is fitted level on the back wall there is a 3 mm gap to the floor at one corner and 13 mm at the other. The bedroom on the other side has a sloped floor in one corner down to this same point. The concrete floor of the kitchen below slopes down to the outside wall. The rooms either side have suspended wooden floors. There had been a crack in the concrete at the doorway to the kitchen.
I'm hoping that any movement is old. The house is on firm clay. There is a large silver birch about 6 m from the house, its taller than the 2 storey house now. The previous owners planted many trees, I removed one within 5 m of the house 3 years ago. The birch roots are visible above the grass up to about 2 m from the house.
Would the silver birch be close enough to cause subsidence? Should the sloping floors be cause for concern?
