Structural engineer/surveyor

[dave w]

Hi, we have a stone property about 20km NE of Villefranche-de-Rouergue in the Aveyron, dept 12. Can anybody recommend a structural engineer or surveyor they have found to be good? Many thanks, Dave[:$]

[Stan Streason]

I used someone who trades as surveyor-expert.com.  2 years down the road and quite a bit of building later we have found nothing that was not in the survey so we are happy.  I dont think this individual necessarily covers your area himself but he is linked into Surveyorsinfrance.com.  Have a look there.

[La Guerriere]

Are looking for a pre-purchase survey or advice on a specific problem you have with a property you already own?

If the latter is it advice on foundations / walls / new structure / floors / whatever?

[dave w]

Many thanks for the reply, I'll have a look at the website, Dave.

[dave w]

Hi, yes, we already own the property. The house wall onto our courtyard is out of plumb by about 200mm leaning outwards at the top. The roof will be coming off anyway and I also need new floor joists. The wall is 600 to 700mm thick and where there is a double door size opening I can put my hand inside the wall where it has parted. I want to pull the wall down, put in a footing, re-build with concrete block and clad it inside and out with the old stone. As she who must be obeyed does not like this idea and wants to just renovate regardless of state of house it seems sensible to get a professional opinion, hence the enquiery. Dave.

[La Guerriere]

It's not an easy one. The walls of many stone built houses consist of inner and outer leaves of random stone, with an inner core of rubble. This inner core is sometimes little more than hardcore i.e. small rubble, sand, earth and lord knows what else. Consequently there is very little that actually holds the inner and outer leaves together. It sounds as though your inner and outers are separating. There will therefore be voids in the core which will only get worse long term. There may be solutions involving connecting inner and outer with stainless rods and getting as much grout into the middle as you can, but it's all guesswork without peering at it very carefully. Rebuilding is probably the only guaranteed fix.