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Subsidence


Oswaldo
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Our house has several ties and historical cracks, and so we had a survey done before buying it to ensure these were historical. Reassured, we made the purchase.

Alas, part of an end wall has noticeably become bowed over the past decade, and we discovered to our horror that an internal cellar wall (holding up a wall above and a chimney) has collapsed at some point since last Christmas. There are small cracks in a wall above the collapsed wall, and a bedroom door in that wall no longer closes!

I think we might have subsidence. Does anyone have any experience of this? How is it officially diagnosed (hanging on to some hope that the insurance might cover remedial work before the house falls down)? Does anyone know anybody in northern Aveyron who may be able to advise us?
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Could you give a few details about the type of construction? Approximate age? You say 'historical cracks' so presumably it is a traditional construction style? Stone, brick, timber? Foundations?

For instance I have a 16th century columbage house that doesn't have a single right-angled corner left in it, just about every element has shifted / settled / started leaning / gone banana-shaped, I suppose just from very gradual natural subsidence because the house sits directly on top of the soil. Around 8 years ago I had timber cladding to shore up the back wall that gets the worst of the weather because It was leaning out so alarmingly that I felt it was starting to defy gravity. The maçon who did the job assured me cheerfully that the house would easily see me out. He said it's normal for columbage houses to "breathe" and expand and contract and move, and you should never try to stop them doing what they naturally want to do. But, you can't have walls collapsing.

Your best bet is to get a local artisan out because he will know all the ins and outs of the local building style, and he should hopefully be able to tell you why this has happened and what can be done about it.
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If your house is built on clay land, and especially if some of the building materials are clay, this could explain the cracks, even maybe the fallen wall. After a long period of drought.

Insurance companies only pay out on this kind of damage if the govt. has declared it an Acte de Nature or something like that.
You need to speak to your insurance company.
I know about this because similar things happened in the commune of our first french house. After the 2003 canicule many old houses suffered subsidence and the govt. covered part of the insurance claims.

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Fair point Théière.

But I was assuming that rebuilding, and identifying the underlying (excuse the pun) cause so that the problem can be stopped, is the way forward.

Sorry to be blunt but if bowing of the wall has been observed over 10 years or so and no steps were taken in all that time to find out the cause and remedy it, I think it would be difficult to convince an insurance company that lack of maintenance wasn't a contributing factor in the wall's collapse.
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