Groundwork & Foundations

Cracks in kitchen floor looks like concrete heave

Anonymous user 23/02/2024 - 3.52 PM

I live in a bungalow it was built mid 1960s. Only lived here since 2021 reported a crack across the kitchen back door. I kept reporting a leak from pipe in cupboard in house this cupboard is in hall way so other side of kitchen finally found leak in the cupboard wall the pipe goes all the way under my bathroom wet room floor that is where leak found it is now stopped i was told leak and cracks are two separateissues due to where leak is and cracks are not in same place ie a full room betweenthe leak and cracks/concrete heave. But the crack across kitchen back door has been getting wider now spread along gone under the skirting to kitchen pantry cupboard straight along the house wall then curved round and straight across pantry floor I can see a thick plastic sheet I believe is the damp proof membrane in the crack along house wall in pantry cupboard one end is curved round under floor can see like small stones behind but further along it has failed there is a 22cm drop before I hit any ground through the back wall crack the crack that curves across the pantry is only about 10cm deep but the floor has dropped where the crack goes from back wall across the pantryfloor in kitchen. Is this the concrete slab that has cracked. What does this mean how do I fix it. All reported to landlord but they don't seem in a hurry to do anything

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Poulton Le Fylde

with the leak it might have washed the sand or sub base away underneath the slab , so nothing supporting the slab, hence the cracking of slabs

Answered19 April 2023

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Clarks Building and Design

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Heathfield

Hi All The fact of the matter is a visual site inspection visit by myself would need to be undertaken to attain if indeed pipe leak has washed out blinding/ sub base. But Quite possibly correct. I am surprised that this cracking was not picked up on a house survey given house was only lived in from 2021, if no crack in 2021 I’d suspect the leak and wash out suggested is good answer to start from.

Answered12 May 2023

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Anonymous user

I would agree with the other answer, it sounds like the sand, etc has been washed away from under the slab. I would advise you to take photos and possibly even videos and send copies to your landlord and ask to have the situation checked by an engineer. You are not responsible for it's repair unless your contract states otherwise. AT YOUR OWN COST you could get an engineer to check it for you and send their report to your landlord. Whether they then acted on it or not would still be up to them. Unless there is potential risk of harm, then I don't think that they are duty bound to do much about it, legally. If things seems to be getting worse and you don't feel happy, I'd suggest moving. At least when you rent a place, that's pretty straight forward. I would not do any repairs if I were you, because they might come back and bite you. Anything you did would be at your own cost and if the landlord wasn't happy about it, they could charge you for having what you did removed and replaced as was, which then can lead to further issues. I won't go into them, but let me just say that they become a real nightmare from that point on!

Answered6 May 2023

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