Help! My House is Falling Down

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.