This lovely railway workers' house in Norton Bridge was feeling a little sorry for itself.
There was structural movement to the left gable likely caused by a combination of defective guttering and drain, inadequate restraint and being six foot from a railway track. Bar the support for the purlins, the head of the gable was only single brick thick and there was already a tie bar through the rear of the house. The crack has been mortared up the gable side and had opened up again. I would consider this movement to be serious and in need of some immediate attention. Most cracks I see are not serious and minimal action needs to be taken.
On the ground floor, much of the floor structure had been replaced, likely as a result of timber decay and insect attack. Unfortunately, the cause of this, inadequate (or in this case, totally absent) sub-floor ventilation had not been addressed and the new floor structure was succumbing to the same fate. RH in the subfloor was 90.8%. Taking care of the symptoms and not the cause is pointless in these circumstances. A plan needs to be made to exhaust the moisture building up in the sub-floor to prevent timber decay and insect attack.
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