And aren't you supposed to stick a vibrator into the sticky mess for increased (job) satisfactionAs Old 30-06 says. It’s called ‘hit and miss’ mass poured underpinning.
You need to dig down until you find a suitable load bearing strata.
I've been a builder since 2006.....Respectfully, I disagree with you on this and the broad generalisation.
I work in the construction industry as a surveyor. You would be astounded by some of the issues we see in modern properties.
I’m not saying we don’t see issues with older properties. But to say modern properties are constructed better is simply not the case.
What I meant in my earlier comment was; because one house built in 1900 (ish) has an issue, that doesn’t mean another will or is more likely to have the same issues.
Sorry, this isn’t intended to be an argumentative comment, and I apologise in advance if that’s how it appears.
Well I've seen a lot worse I'll say that muchSaw it first last summer, my builder advised waiting and watch the cracks grow. It grew as expected so now am on the fix it mode. Me being 75 digging is not for me so paid help will be used.
Here are a few pics of the damage. No trees shrubs or plants are nearby. The bedroom shows movement away from main house as does the bathroom add on, the last on left but the lower kitchen to main house structure shows no cracks yet!
I've been a builder since 2006.....
Perhaps I should not have used the term 'better'. What I'm getting at is that in theory modern housing should, emphasis on should, be built with footings that obviate most issues that you see with basic subsidence. I recently built a property with footings down to 2.5m on one corner due to not especially close trees.
I've seen houses for yesteryear where if you pull up the floor boards you find earth and it's built on top of that. Believe me I've seen it all, as I'm sure have you. I agree a lot of modern housing isn't great but you need to guard against survivor bias. A lot of the housing stock in this country is absolute dross from times gone by.
My point about the age of the property is merely related to my opinion that those age properties *can* be more prone issue like clay heave due to shallower footings etc. I'm my experience any way. Of course be properties haven't had long enough to sink in to the ground yet.....
Generally builders build from a set of plans provided by the architect, the regs. will be printed on these plans as per what the ground conditions and wall/roof type require, there are tables the architect uses to "calculate" the loads. Some smaller jobs are done without architect or structural eng. and the regs are agreed with the bco, but i think this way is dying as the bco's these days have less practical knowledge and are not willing to make decisionswhy would an architect be ever be specifying foundations? that is the SE's remit. and you saw this several times.......
My advice is if you have building insurance and you are willing to pay the excess of say a thousand pounds do nothing and get the insurance company involved. Do nothing before they visit so they can't blame you.My problem is as it is a bolt hole in the UK and gets used by us for say 2 months per year so I am not able to keep an eye on it. Thanks for all the advice folks.