If a remedial engineer were to tell you your home has subsidence, what they’re really saying is your home’s suffering foundational problems. In a nutshell, your home is sinking.

The main danger of sinking comes from the force it exerts on your building. The deeper your home subsides, the more damage the force does, especially if your home is sinking unevenly.

The strain subsidence puts on your home eventually manifests in a variety of ways, most of which are visible to the naked eye. If you want to learn about the kind of damage subsidence can do to your home, read on.

Subsidence causes wall cracks

Some wall cracks are purely superficial but subsidence goes deeper than just the surface. Subsidence can crack both the internal and external walls of your home. These cracks may take on a stepped appearance but in any case are going to be ugly. Subsidence also puts cracks in corners where walls join together.

Subsidence can crack ceilings and cornices

Subsidence places immense amounts of force upon the foundation of your home. The pressure from this force eventually travels from the foundations upwards into the areas of the house that sit right above your head. If cracks are appearing in the ceiling and cornices, it’s likely subsidence has taken hold of your home.

Subsidence jams windows

Pressure travelling upwards from the foundation of your home can squeeze window frames inwards. If you struggle to open and close windows or simply can’t open or close them at all, there’s a high likelihood your home is sinking.

Subsidence jams doors

Subsidence isn’t always perfectly even. One side of your house could be sinking faster than the other side. This unevenness in sinking results in doors that rub the floor or simply get stuck when you try to open or close them. If this is happening, it’s likely subsidence has caused a major imbalance in your home’s foundation.

Subsidence slopes floors

Ever get the feeling you’re walking downhill or uphill in your own home? Seen your children’s toy cars or balls roll to the other side of the room? Or roll into the centre of the room to stop and sit? Subsidence is causing uneven sinking of the foundations which could do further costly damage in the future.

Subsidence causes walls to lean 

Walls can lean or go off-level for the same reasons your windows and doors are jamming and your floors are sloping. Uneven sinking due to subsidence is causing the walls to lean one way or the other. Leaning walls are extremely dangerous as you never can tell when and which way they’ll fall over. A scenario such as this needs to be investigated as soon as possible.

Subsidence creates gaps between walls and floors

Depending on the way your home has been built, subsidence can cause the ground to pull away from the upper parts of your home’s structure. As the ground sinks, the floors can peel away from the base of the interior walls, opening gaps that are both ugly and extremely dangerous. If your floors feel bouncy as you walk, the foundational supports may have eroded.

What to do about subsidence?

If you’re seeing any signs of subsidence, don’t ignore them. Structural problems caused by subsidence can compound quickly making them infinitely more difficult and costly to repair.

The local builder isn’t going to be able to help you re-level the foundation of your home. The trick is to get in touch with remedial engineers. They know exactly how to re-level a home and make long-lasting if not permanent, structural repairs.

By Buildfix

Buildfix was started out of a concern that homeowners weren’t receiving the right expertise and care they deserved, at an affordable cost. All too often, we saw homeowners charged far too much for a structural repair solution that didn’t stand the test of time. 

To this date, we’ve completed over 5000 structural repair projects to the satisfaction of thousands of Australian homeowners. With over 95% of our projects completed in under a day at affordable prices, we’re confident and proud to say we’re the experts in structural repair.