Fill hairline cracks in exterior walls?

C. Eastwood

Is there water leaking from this drain adjacent to the external wall of the house. Or is this totally watertight. It looks like there is a gap between the channel and external wall. There should be a stop end on the channel.

If water is escaping into the ground from the channel, it needs to be surveyed by a Construction professional.

chris_ie

Nope, that end there is just resting against the external wall. No stop end, just open. The house was previously painted black at the bottom hence the black paint. Small gap at the end. Now, that drain wouldn’t catch a huge amount of water but any water that does go in there would end up down that end.

chooseusername

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118922786#Comment_118922786

Am I reading it right, is the tarmac area and channel drain sloping towards the house?

chris_ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118923321#Comment_118923321

The drain slopes slightly towards the house. Its not like you see the water flowing towards the house but in the drain there is muck etc sitting in the drain towards the house. I had to clean it out. The end by the downpipe has nothing.

chris_ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118922867#Comment_118922867

Would a structural engineer survey cover all of this?

C. Eastwood

chris_ie

The missing stop End could be allowing water to escape and wet the ground under the foundations

you need to retain a Construction Professional who deals with insurance claims.

If you retain an Insurance Intermediary you must pay his Fees

If you retain a Surveyor/ Civil Engineer/Architect, their Fees for the Insurance Claim is usually paid for by the Insurance Company which is usually included in your Policy of Insurance.

chris_ie

I had planned on getting my own engineer out previously. Insurance company then sent theirs out. He was the one who said further settlement was the likely cause and that he wouldn’t be concerned about it. The only crack he said needed sorting was the chimney. That’s a separate story.

He never took a look at drainage or anything like that.

So I’ve been down the insurance engineer route already.

C. Eastwood

The person you were talking to is a Loss Adjuster who was working for the Insurance Company.

You should not accept any advice from them.

When I inspect a property with cracks, I need to have many tests carried out before I could give any diagnosis.

The Loss Adjusted who advised you must have some very special Devine powers. Of course there is no privity of contract between you and them.

I wish to make it very clear here, that I do not want any work whatsoever from anyone.

chooseusername

The loss adjuster gets involved if there is a claim.

Op have you put in a claim?

chris_ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118928184#Comment_118928184

No he wasn’t. The loss adjuster was out before the structural engineer. I contacted the insurance company with regards to concerns about the cracks. The crack in the chimney was the main issue but the cracks in the walls concerned me. They sent out a loss adjuster who agreed the chimney needed looking at and thought the cracks were settlement but noted an engineer should look at it.

They then sent out an engineer who was who I have been talking about. They also sent out chimney experts to look at the chimney.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118927609#Comment_118927609

The insurance company will pay for their engineer. If the OP wants to get his own engineer for a second opinion, he is probably going to have to foot he bill. Initially at least, might be possible to include it in a future claim.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118923321#Comment_118923321

Concrete area (it's not tarmac) would be sloping perpendicular to the drain. OP is referring to the internal fall in he drain.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118926448#Comment_118926448

Out of curiosity, how did you determine which way the drain was falling? There not being any muck at the outlet end wouldn't indicate much tbh. It is normal to see it building up at the margins, but not in higher flow areas.

chooseusername

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118944902#Comment_118944902

Concrete area (it's not tarmac) would be sloping perpendicular to the drain. OP is referring to the internal fall in he drain.

The slope (if there is one) of the surface perpendicular to the house will dictate the fall in the drain.

Any slope perpendicular to the drain is immaterial.

There is no inbuilt slope in the drain.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118945100#Comment_118945100

That’s incorrect.

If the drain has no fall of its own, then the fall follows the surface (obviously). But drains can also have slopped channels that achieve their own fall.

A level (or near level) grate can still have a fall via the channel. Can’t tell too much from the photos, but the edge that the drain sits on seems to be lower in the outlet photo. But as I said, not very clear.

C. Eastwood

All that matters with drains in an Insurance Claim for damage to the walls/ foundations is - how much water in litres/minute is escaping from the drains adjacent to the foundations.

NIMAN

Which part of the country are you in OP?

looking at your photos, if that house was in Donegal I would say it was definitely a high chance of it being mica. It looks exactly like how houses are affected.

But if somewhere else in the country , probably some other issue.

chooseusername

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118946189#Comment_118946189

That drain is at least 7 mtrs. long, if there is only one outlet , it would need a drop of at least 3" but more likely 6", about 2%.

It may not be very clear, but I can't see any difference between the 2 ends of the channel.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118946503#Comment_118946503

A 7m linear drain requires 35mm of fall. 150mm would be a massive amount.

Again, the point is that it’s the channel that dictates slope direction, not the surface. Even if it has less than min, could still be going the right way.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118946223#Comment_118946223

Exactly. As I said previous a slow moving drain isn’t a structural issue, but a leaky drain could be.

The lack of an end cap is not ideal in that regard.

monseiur

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118922774#Comment_118922774

Unless the photo is a total optical illusion, it seems that the house is on an elevated site and that there is considerable fall away from house towards the road. To deal with occasional flooding at back of house and to take storm water (off roof etc.) away from house, I would suggest opening a trench to take 150mm or 200mm pipe from back of house thru concrete apron (in photo) thru gravel driveway and into a suitable soakpit at far edge of lawn (unless there's an open drain along main road). The Aco drain in photo serves no purpose and should be filled in, it may in fact be directing storm water towards the house and into foundations.

C. Eastwood

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118946748#Comment_118946748

Carrying out any excavation would be removing Evidence of escape of water.

This evidence is vital in order to make an Insurance Claim under the Insurance peril of Damage to the Building caused by Escape of Water from a pipe, which is included in the Policy of Insurance.

The first thing that must be done here is to have a Hydrostatic Test and CCTV, carried out on all the underground Drains and channel. This needs to be carried out by a Drains Tester acceptable to the Insurance Companies Loss Adjuster.

If there is a substantial amount of escape of water in Litres/ minute, then the Insured will need to retain a Surveyor or Engineer or Architect who specialise in Building Insurance Claims, to process the claim and negotiate with the Loss Adjuster.

I need to confirm here that I do not want any work whatsoever from anyone and will not provide any professional services for anyone.

muffler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118947870#Comment_118947870

Whats with all the posts about you not wanting work .... reverse psychology?

Give it a rest ffs.

C. Eastwood

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118948944#Comment_118948944

I have received a Warning.

I have been accused of touting for work on Boards.ie.

If you have any problems with what I write here, you could stop reading my comments. Your problem solved.

muffler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118949089#Comment_118949089

You clearly dont understand how things work around here.

chris_ie

Man, this is the second thread I created looking for a bit of advice that ended up with arguments 😄

My initial fear was mica as, yes, I am in Donegal. Don't know of any houses with mica around us, I know that doesn't mean there aren't any or that mine isn't. I mentioned previously, I've had quite a few people look at it, including the structural engineer and loss adjuster who all said they didn't think it was mica, had the signs consistent with further settlement (whether that's normal settlement or issues causes by escaping water or whatever). Obviously, no one can guarantee it's not mica unless I get it tested, €6k is a lot to fork out at the minute, if it starts getting worse fast then I'd do the test.

I plan on getting another engineer (appointed by myself) out to take a look. If he comes to the same conclusion that its nothing to worry about, I'm not sure there's much else I can do. After all, they are experts and could be right. I could keep getting more and more engineers and someone tells me something bad, believe them, and then turn out they were wrong and I'm out a fortune for nothing. Easier to believe the negative things at times.

So, I'll see about this other engineer, could be a while as last I spoke to them they were flat out.

Furze99

Well you might have said you were in Donegal to start....

Ching, ching. If I were you and there's a bandwagon leaving the station soon, you might as jump on it :) Cos everyone else who can, will. Yes, call me a cynic but the temptation will be great.

That said, if you can keep an open mind and just address what needs to be fixed, then fair dues to you!! :)

C. Eastwood

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118949506#Comment_118949506

Thanks muffler.

Yes you are correct. I do not understand how things work around here. Politics are always difficult to understand.

I made the assumption that Board.ie Members request help/ advice from other members.

Therefore I was giving free expert professional advice to members.

Then I received a Warning which stated inter alia as follows:- ……..”which as a pattern of your posting style suggests you are touting for business, which the rest of us avoid”…….. [emphasis added]

This is a totally incorrect accusation as I do not want any work from anyone.

I requested an explanation and none was given.

Therefore it is axiomatic that I do not know how I am to prevent another warning accusing me of looking for work or other offences . Therefore sometimes I include my disclaimer when I feel it’s necessary.

monseiur

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118947870#Comment_118947870

Oops ! I meant to quote OP's post no. 11 I was merely suggesting a practical solution to flood issue. I assume the ground continues to rise ag back of house

mickdw

The cracks are slightly concerning but judging from a distance it's unlikely to be a block material defect.

I think there is possibly too much being made of the leaking drains theory here.

The fact that the area floods could be resulting in a similar issue and in some way washing out subsoils to some degree.

A don't see any crack line going through a block which you will typically see on pyrite houses. Vertical cracks top to bottom at external corners are almost a given on pyrite affected houses.

For now, I would simply have some crack monitors fitted and do no more for the next year or so.

chris_ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950781#Comment_118950781

Sounds like a decent plan there. I'll mention it to the engineer about fitting monitors. I've been taking photos at different times to try an ascertain if there are more appearing or not. No corner cracks vertically at the minute. Few vertical cracks in other places but not the corners.

C. Eastwood

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950781#Comment_118950781

mickdw

you are making a good point of the patterns of cracking, which is not cracking the concrete blocks.

Concrete blocks are constructed with a crushing strength of approx 5 N/mm2. Cement mortar (1:4) has a crushing strength of approx half of that of the concrete blocks.

This is to ensure that any movement in the wall will occur in the mortar joints so that the block bonding is not affected.

Crack monitors ought to be fitted and recorded over 12 months by an independent professional.

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118952846#Comment_118952846

Yes except when pyrite / mica is present and at that point the joint material can have superior strength to the block and that's where you get the runs of cracks straight through the blocks at all locations.