I'm in the process of buying a house and when we visiited for a second time we noticed a small crack about 25cm long above the kitchen window. The crack is not in the brick but the rendering. The house is a victorian terrace, should I be worried or is this just age?
A few of the bricks are also in a poor condition (weather beaten a bit crumbly). Again should I be worried? If so how much (ball park) would these problems be to correct.
We are having a survey but I'm trying to get as much info as I can in the mean time.
When you say 'rendering' do you mean render or mortar? That is to say is the wall rendered (bricks totally covered over in a smooth or rough plaster type finish) or is it just the mortar between each brick which is cracking?
Your surveyor will tell you if it is a cause for concern or not, but you may just like to mention it to him before he goes in so he can specifically address this for you. Most houses of that age will have some cracks to the mortar and it is usually consistent with settlement within the normal range over 100 plus years. Cracks suddenly opening up in an old house are more serious of course. Another possibility, particularly if there are signs of weathering to the exterior brickwork, is that there has been some repointing done and maybe inappropriate mortar was used (i.e. cement based rather than lime based). This could be responsible for the cracks opening up. Don't worry for now - wait for your surveyor's report. Hope it works out well for you - a few quirks are often the price of owning a beautiful Victorian house!
I just saw the crack and had a slight panic. We are currently living in a brand new house so are not accustomed to any probs like this. However, we have had enough of the box feel of a new build and want a house with more space and soul. I guess if it's just a factor of living in an older house I can definitely live with it. Let's hope the surveyor has no more nasty suprises.
By the way can anyone give me an idea of how long a report takes to come through?
Any cracking of the mortar between the bricks is usually down to either failed pointing (repair with lime mortar) or movement of the bricks/wall. But you should be able tell if there has been any movement - are the bricks misaligned with an obvious ‘fault line’, is there any evidence of recent repointing along 45 degree ‘staircase’ lines, etc? Or, as susiecam says, it could just be that newly added cement-based mortar has been detached by water freezing/thawing behind it – in this case, often the cement remains and the faces of bricks spawl away.
Originally posted by blackglittershoes: Thanks! By the way can anyone give me an idea of how long a report takes to come through?
Depends on how much of a backlog your surveyor's secretary has got! Should only be a couple of days though. If you are impatient to know then you can telephone and speak to the surveyor after the inspection - you'll usually find they're more than happy to chat things through with you both before and after you get the report. If you are unaccustomed to owning period property (and seeing a surveyor's report on one) prepare yourself - it's going to read like the house is falling into a hole in the ground. This is why it's a good idea to talk to the guy afterwards as he can distill several pages of seemingly alarming comment into a few succinct sentences hopefully ending with the phrase "very nice house, nothing to worry about, well worth what you're paying for it"!!!
It could also be just something minor - when houses move, and lets face it, they all do, the corners of the windows are the weak points and probably nothing to worry about. The other sign for subsidence is the crack narrows or widens at one end - if the crack is a constant width, its likely the problem is relatively minor - do as susie suggests though and give the surveyor a call - we're nice people and don't bite!
