Whether you are getting ready to move home, or you have recently been reading reports of other people having problems, there is a chance that subsidence is something that is very much on your mind. At the most basic level, subsidence is defined as the drying out of the ground that your home stands on. Because of the shifts underneath, the home itself can become unstable and unsound.



When you are looking at subsidence and trying to determine whether or not your home is at risk, there are a few things to consider. The first thing that you need to understand is that any home in the U.K. can be in danger of this occurrence. It is also true that houses built across London and the Southeast are particularly vulnerable. There is a clay belt that runs across the southern part of England, and as the soil dries out and shrinks, this can cause enormous problems.

One way to tell if your home might be having problems with subsidence is to make sure that you keep track of the weather. Subsidence is much more common when the country has undergone a long dry spell that is then followed by a dry winter. Just one season of this happening can be enough to give your home some serious structural stress, but make sure that you check for damage if you have seen more than one in succession!

An important tell-tale sign of subsidence is cracks, but remember that not every crack should make you panic. Some small cracks in your home, even in a new home, are quite normal and nothing at all to be worried about. Fine cracks can usually be disregarded, as well as cracks that seem no deeper than the plaster. The cracks that should look at in detail usually occur diagonally and they will occur both on the plaster and on the brick work outside.

When you are worried about subsidence, take some time to do a thorough inspection of your home. Pay special attention to the weaker structural points of your home, including doors and windows. Have you noticed that some doors and windows are sticking more often? Sometimes humidity does make the wood distort, but if it has been dry, the movement of your house might also be to blame. When you are looking for weak spots, also check the joins between the main house and any extensions that have been added on. These are among the weaker places in your home and can be the first sign that subsidence has taken hold.

Also keep in mind the fact that you should understand what kind of risk your home is in. For instance, homes that are built on clay are at risk, while homes built on granite or chalk are less so. Similarly, homes with deeper foundations are at less risk, while homes with many trees nearby, which can suck the moisture out of the land, are more at risk.

Subsidence can be a real headache to deal with, and the more warning you have, the better off you are going to be!