Classic crapy porch pulling away

london77 · 10 Apr 2025

Hi,

Cheapest possible porch, poorly built single brick thing is pulling away from the house. It will obviously need to come down eventually but I'm just kicking the can down the road for a bit. Is it worth adding some angle brackets here to try and stabilise it or nah?

blup · 10 Apr 2025

Brackets won’t prevent it imo, it might be worth trying the insurers in case it’s subsidence related

london77 · 10 Apr 2025

blup said:
Brackets won’t prevent it imo, it might be worth trying the insurers in case it’s subsidence related

Tar, noone has said but I think it's the porch guttering draining into the ground next to it (not the house) - but the main property is fine.

noseall · 10 Apr 2025

blup said:
it might be worth trying the insurers in case it’s subsidence related

blup · 11 Apr 2025

noseall said:

I had a similar situation years ago when the insurers paid to remedy the effects of a porch that was rotating away from the main building. The assessors were never clear but it appeared to be a combination of tree roots and inadequate footings. Later found the whole building had been constructed on made up land, so we sold it asap.

robinbanks · 11 Apr 2025

london77 said:
It will obviously need to come down eventually but I'm just kicking the can down the road for a bit

I wouldn't bother trying to do anything with it now; just keep an eye on it. Dare say it'll last til you're ready to knock it down

Dereekoo · 11 Apr 2025

Mortar it up and leave as it is, it will last you out

StephenStephen · 11 Apr 2025

From what you've written, isn't the best solution to sort out where the water from the porch roof goes?

Deluks · 11 Apr 2025

london77 said:
Tar, noone has said but I think it's the porch guttering draining into the ground next to it (not the house) - but the main property is fine.

Then you may have a drainage problem, not a foundation problem.

Ivor Windybottom · 11 Apr 2025

It's probably just built on topsoil. It will be either DIY or a cowboy builder, porches usually don't need building regs involvement. It's a porch so it's probably unbalanced - it has at least some wall on the side away from the house but doesn't on the side next to the house. Or sometimes the whole thing wants to sink but the side next to the house is perching on the top of the house foundation so can't sink with the rest.

Float a bath sponge on water and put a weight on one side, you'll see that exactly this tipping happens!

It's probably junk. Start by digging a hole alongside it, see where the bottom of the foundation is and what it's sitting on. My bet is it's about a foot down and sitting on topsoil - i.e. rotting vegetation, twigs and worms. If so then embrace reality, don't waste time and money trying to fix it.

Definitely don't try to hold it up from above with brackets - you'd be trying to hold back several tons against gravity with a few screws which won't end well - either the porch or the house brickwork could crack.

london77 · 16 Apr 2025

StephenStephen said:
From what you've written, isn't the best solution to sort out where the water from the porch roof goes?

Deluks said:
Then you may have a drainage problem, not a foundation problem.

Ivor Windybottom said:
It's probably just built on topsoil. It will be either DIY or a cowboy builder, porches usually don't need building regs involvement. It's a porch so it's probably unbalanced - it has at least some wall on the side away from the house but doesn't on the side next to the house. Or sometimes the whole thing wants to sink but the side next to the house is perching on the top of the house foundation so can't sink with the rest.

Float a bath sponge on water and put a weight on one side, you'll see that exactly this tipping happens!

It's probably junk. Start by digging a hole alongside it, see where the bottom of the foundation is and what it's sitting on. My bet is it's about a foot down and sitting on topsoil - i.e. rotting vegetation, twigs and worms. If so then embrace reality, don't waste time and money trying to fix it.

Definitely don't try to hold it up from above with brackets - you'd be trying to hold back several tons against gravity with a few screws which won't end well - either the porch or the house brickwork could crack.

Thanks all. It's one of those awkward things where there isn't really anywhere for the water to run properly. It was indeed a cowboy/DIY job and it should have been done properly in the first place. I'm sure there aren't any decents footings (also explains the eye watering quote we had to replace it) but it may or may not be water so unless anything else dramatic happens I'll just keep and eye on it for now...

big-all · 17 Apr 2025

no expert at all in this area
but like noseall do not think going to your insurance and connecting the word"subsidence " to your house in any shape or form is a good idea as the consequences could range from not a good idea to disastrous iff misconstrued especially in declaration when selling

but purely a guess

Ivor Windybottom · 17 Apr 2025

It's unlikely there's subsidence that would ever affect the original building.

Much more likely the house was built properly and the porch was a DIY or cowboy builder add-on.

Only getting the spade out and having a look at the foundations will clarify though, not nattering on t'internet or paying specialists with clipboards.

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Classic crapy porch pulling away

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