Help! My House is Falling Down

1. E1. Narborough

   Jun 9, 2011 · 60m

   In Narborough Sarah meets Jamie and Charlotte who fear their house is sinking. The couple recently discovered an alarming slope in the first floor of their Edwardian home and are terrified the property could be tilting to the point of collapse. Also, the roof is leaking and black mould is growing on the walls. Sarah and her team of specialists diagnose subsidence and a serious case of roof spread that is slowly taking the supporting walls with it. Jamie and Charlotte have a dwindling budget and are seriously concerned about running out of money to fix these problems. With her no-nonsense tips and treatments for even the most extreme of property nightmares, Sarah shows them, how to save a property in peril.

2. E2. Cheshire

   Jun 16, 2011 · 60m

   Sarah Beeny and her team of specialists head to the Murphy family's chocolate box cottage in Cheshire. Mum Andrea fell for its period charms but now the cracks are appearing and she and husband Steven are terrified the character features hide a multitude of problems. They're right to be worried, an investigation reveals a can of worms: floors so poorly laid their children could end up falling through them, a dangerous roof and most worryingly, a first for Sarah - a very real risk of fire. Like many period properties built before modern fire regulations, a combination of flammable materials and poor construction mean that smoke from a fire in the living room would fill the kids' bedroom above in a matter of minutes. It's an emotional discovery for the doting parents of two boys aged seven and four. With the budget gone replacing the roof they need Sarah's level-headed advice and DIY savvy to understand their home and take charge of it.

3. E3. Swinton

   Jun 23, 2011 · 60m

   Sarah Beeny intervenes to help a family terrified that their home in Swinton is falling down a mineshaft. With a history of mining-related collapses in the neighbouring streets, and worrying signs of structural failure, Mandy Franks and family are desperate for the truth. Cracks in the wall come back as fast as they can fill them; damp and mould are spreading across the upstairs; and the back end of the house is sinking slowly but surely into the ground. They have already spent over £50k trying to fix their home, but none of the costly work seems to have solved the problem. Could the Victorian villa be about to fall into a mineshaft? Or could the mystery cracking be due to the regular delivery of heavy beer casks to the pub next door? Sarah gets her team of specialists to work with a detailed map survey of the vicinity and the use of ground penetrating radar to check for voids. Will their discoveries confirm the family's worst fears? And will her no nonsense approach plus step-by-step tips be enough to rescue their home from the brink of disaster?

4. E4. Warwick

   Jun 30, 2011 · 60m

   Sarah Beeny meets recently engaged couple Mark and Gudren whose Warwick home is crumbling to dust Mark and Gudren's Victorian terrace is constructed from an early, experimental concrete mix. The walls are now crumbling and Mark's attempts at renovating it have actually speeded up the decay, meaning many of the rooms are now too unstable to live in. Sarah and her team of specialists probe the walls and find large sections that are little more than dust. Also, the original slates on the roof have been replaced with much heavier concrete tiles, adding too much weight to the increasingly fragile home below. And to top it all, the cottage timbers are being eaten by woodworm. As Mark and Gudren face mounting bills, their planned wedding is delayed indefinitely and they're stung to realise that their seemingly bargain home is worth considerably less than they paid for it. Sarah and her team of specialists need to come up with an innovative solution to this extreme situation.

5. E5. Lytham St Annes

   Jul 7, 2011 · 60m

   Sarah helps to rescue single-mum Carole's dream of living 'the good life' in a 1950s bungalow in Lytham St Annes. When Carole inherited her dad's bungalow it should have been the perfect place to live her dream, complete with hens and vegetable patch. But alarming cracks have appeared in the property and the floors are sloping, leaving Carole worried for the very future of her home. Sarah and her team use specialist cameras and equipment to discover that the drains under the bungalow's 1980s extension are cracked, causing water to seep into the surrounding soil and the foundations to sink. The rest of the building is built on a concrete raft foundation sat on top of an unstable mixture of peat and sand. This has all left her home literally splitting apart. The solution is to put piles under the home to support its foundations. It will eat up a considerable amount of Carole's budget but will leave her with a stronger, safer and more stable home. This episode also demonstrates how to spot and avoid subsidence, and tips on how to know and understand your home's foundations.

6. E6. Essex

   Jul 14, 2011 · 60m

   Can Sarah help save a 14th-century Essex farmhouse from utter ruin? Andy and Andrea Green are at the end of their tether with their home's leaking roof, the cracking render, rotting beams, and a dangerously decayed bathroom floor. The 500-year-old house has been in Andy's family since 1908. Can Sarah can offer a solution? With timber specialists, roofing experts and plumbers on site, the results show terrifying problems: a deathwatch beetle infestation and impending structural failure in the cellar beams.

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