Builders advise please - flooding

messie

sorry to hear,

Yes the movement in the building may have occurred due to the flooding under ground, which will have changed the pressure under ground, and may have caused a "heave" in the soil.

The "good" news is when the soil dries out it should shrink back to near enough where it was and can be repaired and all should be fine again, although the repairs may be fairly major depending on the type of wall which has been damaged.

Sorry to hear this, anglia water were good to me when my meter had been leaking for 6 months and I ended up with a £800 bill.

Fingers corssed this will be sorted soon

Alex

[Messie]

Thank you all so far.
Yes the cellar was properly tanked and waterproof, and there was something like 24 litlre/per second of water coming out of the mains, which I'm told is high.

To be fair to Anglian Water, they have been very good so far; they admitted liability straight aways and got workmen and Loss Adjusters in before my own insurance company could.

Apparenttly my roof is a stange sort, where tiles have been covered with canvas, which has then been sprayed with tar (or something)

Please could someone tell me my house isn't going to fall down?

[NTECUK]

Houses are more resilientthan you'd think.

Like you said its been there all that time.
The ones in the west country have had worse and still standing .

I can tell you it's not going to fall down.

Takes an awful lot of subsidence for that to happen. Bit of movement and a few cracks aren't unexpected though when things shift. You won't really know the full extent of things till everything dries back to normal but I wouldn't worry too much, there's no question as to the blame and the water company will be insured for this stuff.

[andrewsmith]

Messie

Sorry to here that. From what you've said sounds like the house is safe structurally.
Get on to your insurers make them aware and they'll come assess what the issues are. At least Anglican have admitted liability straight away, 24 l/sec is a city supply by sounds so is a big main to fail

You can't stop that size leak getting everywhere

sent from a phone

Messie,
It doesnt take too much water for the ground to shift, many many factors come in to play, level of the water table in the area, type of earth (clay, sandy etc) is the house on a hill?

Being an old house has pros and cons, pros are it will have lime mortar so will allow movement to an extent, cons is it will have shallow foundations compared to modern standards.

If the house has moved enough to cause a large crack, I wouldnt be surprised if there is signs of movement at roof level too.

If it was me, I'd demand an independent structural engineer visits your property at their cost, they normally screw a piece of glass across the crack and monitor it.
You definitely need to make Anglian aware of these new cracks and the fact that the tanking has been breached should've set their alarm bells ringing.

Hopefully it's not as bad as it sounds, good luck.

[Messie]

Thank you everyone, for the reassurances.

The Loss Adjuster for Anglian Water has been in contact again ( I emailed with info about the crack and leaks) and they've promised they will do what they can. He said they will put tarps over the roof tomorrow.

SpecialOne - thanks for the advice. I'll make sure I ask for a structural engineer when I see them again tomorrow. At least it's not just me who thinks all the problems may be connected

Another thing, do not settle on a claim until a structural engineer has reported on it, they can say whatever they like but unless an expert looks at it, then take everything else with a pinch of salt.

[Messie]

OK will do!

Mine is a small flood. All of those whose whole houses have been flooded this week end by the weather must be so traumatised. I feel anxious enough. They must feel dreadful

From a water front 24 litres a second isn't a massive amount. And by the sounds of the damage and response you'll be ok. Water companies tend not to "shy" from liability, even more so when the local telemetry pumping station will prove the leak anyway, so sit tight but they've got evidence to prove the leak for you. So they can't run and hide.