Differential Floor Levels... Should I walk?

Your thoughts and experience please.

From the pre-purchase engineer's report (following up on marked external wall cracking):

Differential floor levels along the length of the dwelling are significant. A total of 45mm over the length of building is not noticeable when walking from one end of the dwelling to the other. A 90mm differential settlement over this distance could well be. If the differential settlement has occurred linearly during the preceding 10 years then one could expect an additional 10 year period before further action is required. Without a system of monitoring in place it is not possible to determine trends in differential settlement only absolute quantities. There are processes available to stabilise or eliminate differential settlement but these do not appear to be prudent at the present time. Costs for underpinning are approximately $1,000.00 - $2,000.00 per lineal meter at the present time. Costs for injection grouting would be approximately half this cost. In either case, the expenditure of such cost does not appear to be warranted at this time.

 

Suggest you phone the engineer and discuss.

Pre-purchase reports are necessarily pessimistic. In this case no action is warranted!!

We had a report once detailing so many faults we were sure we would back out, but on talking to the inspector he said the issues were minor, in keeping with the age of the property and added that it was a great house!
Marg

 

Thanks Marg4000
The Engineer was top notch and professional. Couldn't give me a % risk figure, but needed a 6 month re-evaluation to assess the rate of shifting. I walked.