Hello,
I am thinking about buying a house that has bad damage to a room downstairs.
I have been reading a lot about brickwork, but I'm now confused as to where to start. I am trying to gauge the cost of getting this repaired.
A building report said that the damage was caused due to an incorrectly installed downpipe which has discharged over a period of time saturating the sub-soils around the footing.
The room was constructed between precast concrete stumps supporting the upper floor of the residence. The bricks were laid on a 300mm wide concrete strip footing running the length of the room and stepped down five courses directly below the right hand style of a 1.2 high x 1.5m long sliding aluminium window.
Photos are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98107764@N08/9140838601/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98107764@N08/9140833811/in/photostream/lightbox/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98107764@N08/9140848681/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98107764@N08/9140874499/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98107764@N08/9143105264/in/photostream/
My question:
Where on earth to I start looking at a solution to get this fixed? At this point - money is a huge issue and we are looking for a solution that is safe, but would mean we can move into that room. We plan on putting our office there (expensive equipment). I'm not worried about aesthetics at the moment, just a bare bones solution - even DIY if possible.
Am I looking at $2,000 or $20,000 to get this room to a point of being able to live and work in it?
Any help would be appreciated.
Christine