Restoration & Refurbishment

Dormer timber supports - how to investigate?

Anonymous user 01/03/2024 - 2.50 PM

We are remortgaging our flat and upon the recommendation of the surveyor, we had a structural engineer inspect our property to confirm if the tree outside was causing any structural damage. The structural engineer concluded that the tree was of no concern, however he believed that the diagonal crack in our wall was caused by the timber joists in the window architrave opening slightly (known as creep deflection), and as a consequence the right-hand side of the window (as viewed internally) had dropped very slightly. He said this was expected in an old Victorian building (we are the 3rd flat on the top floor of a converted Victorian building) and not significant, however he advised that we employ a local builder to carry out further investigations into the support of the front wall over the bay. My question is, what would these further investigations involve? How could we determine if there was a significant problem? And if there was a significant problem, what remedial work would we need to carry out?