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House being sold with huge structural problem

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  • 05-07-2017 1:17am
    #1
    Senna
    Registered Users Posts: 8,800 ✭✭✭


    Hypothetical situation.
    House next door had a large number of cracks on the outside walls, owners removed the whole outer leaf on atleast one side and once that was finished the house was plastered, painted, cracks filled and went straight on the market.
    House ages would coincidence with Mica problem in brick, but purely speculation.

    Is it right that these people could hide a possible problem like this and then fob the house off to an unsuspecting buyer.
    I don't think Mica would be caught by an engineer if all the cracks are resently plastered over and painted.
    This is all speculation and it none of the neighbours business, but if you lived next door, would you do something, and if so what?


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    #2
    C3PO
    Registered Users Posts: 3,760 ✭✭✭C3PO


    A lot of speculative speculation going on there!


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    #3
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Next door? Might you (hypothetically) have the same problem?

    A good surveyor would wonder why an old brick house had just been plastered....


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    #4
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,608 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    Removing the whole outer leaf on one side of a house is a huge structural undertaking.... One which would need extra internal structural temporary works to stop the house falling down.

    If someone wanted to be cheap and hide cracks, that's not the route they would go down.

    Any surveyor worth his salt would be able to recognise such drastic remedial works anyway.

    I have done many pre purchase reports on houses, and when I see newly painted ceilings / walls etc my alarm bells start to ring.


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    #5
    CeilingFly
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,378 ✭✭✭CeilingFly


    even a junior engineer will see that it has recently been rendered and will investigate.

    But your post is total speculation with no actual basis and with "catastrophe syndrome" added.


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    #6
    davo10
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,926 ✭✭✭davo10


    Home owner does improvements before selling to increase appearance and value, that's pretty common. If this is in the NW, in the area of that quarry which was alledgedly selling defective blocks (prime time programme about it), the surveyors will be well aware of what to look out for. Also, that programme showed that defects are not restricted to outer structure, the blocks crumbled causing huge internal cracks and gaps. That's not something you can skim over with plaster.

    I made a builder remove the plaster/outer leaf on the front of a house I built because he made a complete helms of it, that was 10 years ago, not even a hairline crack since.


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    #7
    Senna
    Registered Users Posts: 8,800 ✭✭✭Senna


    As I said hypothetical question and I think the answer is any survey at all would pick it up, so that basically covers any concerns.

    That primetime program showed the worst and at the early stages, there was no cracking inside on some houses with it, certainly no more than any house with a few settlement cracks.

    I think it effects 5000+ houses, so I'm sure there are a few people trying to hide it and sell the house on to some unsuspecting buyer.


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