The walls are giving way

[Lunda123]

Hello,

About to buy a 200 sqm house where the walls have started to give way, i.e., if you look at the facade all around, it's wavy. Previous owners have installed steel cables running through the entire house to stabilize everything.

Wondering how to renovate the walls correctly without tearing down the whole house.
Any tips?

 

[Daniel 109]

What kind of walls are they? Why are they not stable?

 

[mexitegel]

You should probably have a contractor take a look at that before you sign any contract. It sounds like it might become quite extensive to sort that out.

 

[Strontus]

Are it the walls that are giving way, and not just the facade?

 

[Lunda123]

Yes, I might be getting in over my head... This is how it looks inside..

I should add that the roof bulges inward, it's an old asbestos roof, and the foundation might not be the best either..
So it might be a demolition object...
You see the wires across. Looking at the facade from the outside, it's wavy, so to speak.

Here's the link to the ad anyway: https://www.svenskfast.se/fritidshus/gotland/gotland/romakloster/snickaregatan-11/226060

I might back out, hehe.

 

[prototypen]

Looks like the rafters are about to give in and are pushing out the walls.
The wires work as a collar tie.
If you look at the ridge outside, does it sag in the middle?

Tie rods can be seen, for example, in semi-old churches just to prevent the walls from being pushed out.

 

[Lunda123]

Well, nothing I reacted to. I'm in Stockholm and the building is in Visby so I can't easily check it out. However, I took this picture.
Maybe it looks a bit swaying...

 

[Strontus]

It said that it was previously a carpentry workshop, so maybe the wires are simply part of the construction to achieve high ceilings and not something that was put in because there is something wrong?

 

[hempularen]

It's common for cables to be used in that way. Here they seem to be spaced too far apart, there should be a cable per roof truss, roof trusses are often spaced at cc 120.

 

[witten]

In old houses, the roof trusses can be placed at any center-to-center distance, sometimes varying within the same house. Here it seems like every other truss has a tie rod and every other has a support leg.

 

[Lunda123]

Thank you for your answer. If you were to convert this building into an apartment/s, would you have "renovated" the walls or left them with wires hanging? In any case, the roof probably needs to be worked on, as it is bulging inward.

 

[Lunda123]

It said that it was previously a carpentry, so maybe the wires are simply part of the construction to achieve a high ceiling, and not something added because there is something wrong?

That could be the case, but when you look at the facade from the outside, you can see that it is wavy, i.e., it gets pushed in a bit where the wires run.

 

[prototypen]

The tension rods in some form probably need to stay, no wall construction can hold if the trusses have the opportunity to push out the walls.
If you remove the rods, you'll need to build a support wall perpendicular to the facade, as found in older churches.

Protte

 

[useless]

I guess that the dragstagen are original, but that it's a poor design from the start that has caused the walls to bulge over time.

 

[witten]

If you are going to convert to apartments, it will probably still involve stripping down to the shell to build new fire compartments etc., it's usually difficult to just build on the old structures when aiming to meet modern standards. So, the wires are probably the minor issue.