cracking up about cracks

[flownthecoopkiwi]

So, bought a new house a month ago and it had some cracks, inside and out, above and between windows. Had them checked and helifix bars, crack stitching on outside cracks done. Apparently due to concrete deflected lintels and some thermo expansion. It's a 1970's house and the 5 other houses in the small development have had the same issues.

But all I see is inside cracks, keep focusing on them. None you could get a £1 coin into, and most are hair line and have no cracking on the outside. But I'm sure they sneak up overnight to freak me out. Went around and filled them - our bedroom has two huge windows on the south side and has been worse effected.

Anyway, house hasn't fallen down yet, they just look a but unslightly although just filled with filler yesterday so waiting to see what happens.

Do cracks expand in spring/summer?

What can I do to stop myself panicking about them? DH not bothered at all!!!!

[whatsthecomingoverthehill]

Well it doesn't sound like you have too much to worry about, other than cracks being annoying and messing up your decorating. My house (1970s) has got a fair few cracks too, but none of them particularly large, or evidence of anything drastically bad going wrong.

If you were to get a structural engineer in then they would probably advise monitoring to see whether they are getting worse or not. There's no reason why you can't do it yourself if you don't want to pay for an engineer. The easiest way is to use a 'tell tale', which is a gauge that you pin either side of the crack and if there is movement you can read off how far it has moved. Other option is to put pins or monitoring discs either side of the crack and measure the gap with some calipers. Measure every few months and see whether there is long term progressive movement or not. But you're normally looking at measuring for at least a couple of years (unless they suddenly get big or anything in which case get the professionals in!)