Under pinning?

After the really high winds over the last week or so we were slightly nervous about what we might find at The Hovel, especially given the number of large trees behind the property and most actually within reach of it! Thankfully, apart from the black bin wedged in the stream, there was nothing to report.

Our main aim this visit was to meet with the structural surveyor, queue ‘uh oh’ or similar cinematic effect please. Yes, after a year of owning the property we have now decided to consult an expert. Personally I would have done this way back, before we actually signed on the dotted line but t’hubby felt that there was every chance it would cause us enough concern that we would chicken out of buying it. Of course that was highly likely and because it had been love at first sight, especially for t’hubby – we went ahead.

It wasn’t long after it was ours that we started to notice the cracks. They weren't new, they’d been there all along it was just that the rose tinted spectacles had hidden them. Now The Hovel was built in 1768 and as it is still standing we didn’t think it would be disappearing down the hill in a hurry but, at some point in the distant future we (or our children, maybe even grandchildren) will want to sell. And so now we needed to know, so that we can take whatever measures may be deemed necessary. My thoughts up to this point have been that if drastic measures were required e.g. underpinning then we’ll take the opportunity to extend, sympathetically of course but to me it makes sense to take advantage of the situation. Lol, my one daft concern was that if that WAS the case it would throw out our lovely new doors, but I guess in the scheme of things ……

……… And so the man arrived.

And he looked

And he walked around

And he looked

And he walked around some more

And he looked

And then he made his pronouncement ………..

Nothing too severe, phew. There is obvious evidence of past movement and we need to take some remedial action to ‘tie’ the front wall to the back wall (not as bad as it sounds I’m told) as it has moved 25mm since the ceiling/floor was replaced – 41 years ago! Then we need to place ‘tell tales’ to both monitor for any further movement and to provide evidence when there is none (fingers crossed). That way we are also safeguarding a future sale. So all in all a reasonable outcome.

And would we have chickened out if we’d had that done in advance. We’re not sure but we may have done. Because we didn’t ‘know’ the hovel then we may have thought it wasn’t worth the hassle. And so I guess t’hubby was right all along and as I sit here typing watching the sun start to burn off the cloud and rain and reveal our view, I am glad, although had the answer been underpinning I might have been yelling at him, right here right now lol.

Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to leave me a comment, oh and yes, the campanulas survived on their house bricks.

Wendy xx

Please note this post was scheduled to upload after the time of writing