Background
The pre-purchase survey report highlighted various cracks internally and the potential purchasers were concerned that this represented ongoing structural movement.
Pole service offer
The client requested a full General Movement Report of the main walls inside and out.
Technical
Our study of the property always starts with the exterior envelope since this is the main skeletal part of the structure. Here we found no sign of any external cracking at all.
Internally we found significant cracking at first floor level only, but a distinct absence of any internal cracking at ground floor level.
The cracking occurred in non-loadbearing partitions and generally in those instances where the partitions were heavy and were resting on the floorboards or floor joists. That is to say where the wall does not have its own foundation support and is therefore more vulnerable to periodic flexing and cracking.
Conclusions
We were satisfied that the property remained safe, strong, and robust and showed no signs of any modern day settlement or subsidence problems.
The property rests on a gravel soil and therefore is in general much more stable than a house on clay soil.
It is very common for cracks to occur in non-loadbearing partitions, particularly when they are built in heavy brick or block and rest on the floorboards or floor joists. This is due to flexing of the floor structure only. We call this secondary movement: movement in the building fabric rather than in the primary structure.
We considered that the property represented a normal lending and insuring risk and we believe that the purchase proceeded.
