Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Feb 11, 2013 4:28 pm Gents, Newbie here, I just found this great forum. Here's my issue: one corner of my house seems to be sinking slowly. What I can see of it, is some cracks on certain walls in the corners. It's widening ever so slightly, probably a millimeter in 2 years - but it's not settled. I'm wondering if anyone can give me advice whom to contact to do something about it? The house is sitting on brick 'legs' - about 50cm off the ground. It's a brick veneer construction, and an older one I reckon. Re: Corner of the house sinking 2Feb 11, 2013 4:44 pm Brick legs sounds a bit suss, do you know what the foundations are? Are these brick legs sitting on a concrete slab or some sort of concrete pad? Either way it sounds like the foundations are compromised by something. Either they were not done right in the first place and as the seasons/years play on your subsoil they are shown wanting, or a new problem is emerging like poor drainage etc. Best get a good restumper/underpinner to have a look. Re: Corner of the house sinking 3Feb 11, 2013 6:03 pm I've no idea what the actual foundation is. I can imagine they weren't really done right, it would not be the only thing around here, sadly. Thanks, so I need a restumper or underpinner - I'll look one up. Re: Corner of the house sinking 4Feb 12, 2013 8:23 pm Best to look up a structural engineer first and consider his learned recommendation. A restumper or underpinner will only push their own barrow. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Corner of the house sinking 5Feb 16, 2013 10:55 am I would suggest the brick legs the o.p. is talking about is the normal brick piers associated with typical brick veener construction.The piers that are tied into the external brickwork that the bearer sits on. 1-2 mm cracking over 2 years is not enough to panic about. Could be one of two things- 1.The footing or foundation is water sodden-check downpipe discharge.Is ground water trapped in that area?-provide concrete apron to 1.2 m from house. 2.The ground is so dry the clay has shrunk allowing the footing to go down-Leave a hose on slighty in the area for a few weeks to put more moisture into the ground to make the clay swell and heave up the footing. good luck. Re: Corner of the house sinking 6Jan 18, 2014 7:54 am I hope its okay to necro and hijack this thread as I have the same problem as the OP and I'm after some advice. Also new here. It's a long story so bear with me. I have a low set brick veneer circa 1999 and I'm pretty sure the back corner is sinking due to drainage problems. I have stepped mortar cracks up to nearly 10mm and a couple of vertical window frames(?) coming away from window panes. Internally there are some cracks in the ceiling and cornice plaster that i think are related. One internal door has gone subtely skew in the direction of the drop. I'm pretty sure the external problem was there when we got the place in 2004 although I don't recall it being on the building inspection report or I would have questioned it. Anyway I have not been measuring the progress so I cant say if it has stopped but the internal door problem is reasonablely recent and made me think it's still happening. I believe it is drainage related because that corner (back and side) is bounded by a 3m high boulder rock retaining wall that is about 1-1.5m from the slab. It's QLD and so we tend to get a lot of water in the storms coming down and collecting there. The 1.5m passages between the house and ret wall are pebbles on bare earth and there is a drainage pit in the corner but whoever installed it put the pipe coming out dead centre of the bottom of the pit and it has clogged with debris over the years. I was told by a plumber that the pipe should come out a bit higher than the bottom so heavy debris does not clog the pipe. We have no curb and channelling so flushing is not possible as its almost impossible to collect the water. So water pools at that corner and can take a while (hours not days) to clear. Also due to the location it does not get many hours of sun light so can take a while to fully dry out; unlike the west facing front which gets baked daily in summer. Another related issue was during the summer 2013 heavy rains i found some water jetting into our floor drain in the guest bath (which is near that back corner). There was no internal tap on to cause this so I assumed it was the ground water seepage but under a lot of pressure and coming through cracks in the drainage pipe. So that's the situation. I really want to know who I talk to get a professional opinion of what to do. Is it council? A builder? A civil engineer? I thought that redoing the drainage and concreting the back and side might fix the overall drainage issue but I want to understand the implications of the problem I've already got. Do I have to do something first to stop the sinking before spending money on concrete etc. Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks Re: Corner of the house sinking 7Jan 18, 2014 10:31 am Hi, from your description you definitely have a drainage problem. Wow,a 3m high retaining wall 1.5 from the back wall,must have a lot of land above you. Plenty of run off of water from that.Ground must be sodden around there. What the use of a drainage pit if there is no concrete paving to direct the water to it? The drain leading from it is it solid or an aggi (slotted).If it is solid storm water then it is doing zilch. Where does it lead to?I would be consulting a civil engineer in your case. However if it was my problem,and going upon your( very well description),I would be pulling out that obviously not working attempt at drainage,laying a new solid storm water drain with a few collection pits, depending upon the length of the run,making sure it discharged somewhere,and paving that area so the water runs to the pits.Wait a few years till the soil stabilized,pull down the defective brickwork and re-do and patch and repair the internal. Rob. Re: Corner of the house sinking 8Jan 18, 2014 11:05 am I would recommend independent inspection and a report that will detail findings and recommendations. You could try an engineer or an architect or a building expert I have some blogs on failed foundation that might assist you Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Corner of the house sinking 9Jan 18, 2014 12:42 pm It is good that you have posted on this thread as the thread has a good title and contains the same subject matter. This makes it easier for others to search for information. Do the house downpipes also drain to the corner pit? How big is the pit? Can you scoop out the built up sludge? Pits need ongoing maintenance! It would seem that you need a geotechnical engineer to do sub soil moisture tests to establish where the problem is. He will then recommend the next step. Soils are either reactive or dispersive. It sounds like yours may be dispersive if the corner is dropping due to high sub soil moisture levels but this needs to be established. Knowing the soil type is critical. Reactive soils expand and contract as sub soil moisture levels change. Dispersive soils have a chemical imbalance that makes them prone to subsoil erosion. Approximately 30% of soils in Australia have the potential to disperse. Have a read of the site (check masonry) linked below. http://www.structuraldesigns.com.au/FAQs.htm These problems are not always located where you may think the obvious area is. Do you have a tree on the 'good' side? 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Corner of the house sinking 10Jan 19, 2014 6:48 am Thanks everyone for your replies. I think I'll start with a building inspector and perhaps go from there. The area is certainly not sodden as such so the water does get away. We are on a hill so surface water runs well in the places it can like out the front and maybe that helps the sub surface water to get away but maybe not quite enough? To answer a few questions posed in the replies: The drain leading from it is it solid or an aggi (slotted).If it is solid storm water then it is doing zilch. Where does it lead to? The pipe is solid. Our storm water goes to shared storm water pipe that runs across the front of all our properties (inside our boundaries) and then connecst to the council stormwater; it is all U/G. Do the house downpipes also drain to the corner pit? The downpipes on that side do connect to the storm water line that the pit is connected to at places. The pipe connections into the ground are all good...no grass for the edge trimmer and so no risk of shattering the collars.... How big is the pit? Can you scoop out the built up sludge? Pits need ongoing maintenance! Yes I do this but its only the pit I can't do anything about whats in the pipe. I bought a filter basket type thing that fits nicely in there (not a mossy mesh just a plasticy lattice structure) to capture leaves and stones and that has made cleaning easier. Soils are either reactive or dispersive. I'll go about getting this checked. It is a heavy clay soil if that helps Do you have a tree on the 'good' side? On top of the walls there is a lot of vegetation. Lillypilly, gums in the property behind, and grasses. Out the front is just sloping lawn with hedges and the other side is grass and hedges. Re: Corner of the house sinking 11Jan 19, 2014 9:40 am A building inspector would probably just recommend that you get either a structural or geotechnical engineer. These engineers usually work together. The structural engineer will tell you what's wrong (which you already know), why it has happened (based on the geotech's report) and what needs doing. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Perhaps widen the hole a bit more and insert a nice piece of timber and make it an in counter knife block?? 2 1679 4 14255 Dear all, Requesting your help in relation to a CDC code. We are building a new home in NSW on a corner lot (500m2, 15m wide) following Greenfield CDC code. Our design… 0 4781 |