help! Look at my crack!

[insancerre]

Doing some work in the utility moving cupboards and taking off tiles and wallpaper and dh finds this
It starts at the bottom but doesn't quite get to the ceiling
What on earth do we do?
The kitchen is very old, probably not been touched since the 80s
It's an internal wall, the other side is the downstairs loo
It's single storey as it's the bit between the kitchen and the garage
Is my house about to fall down?

Have you chopped any trees down next to your house recently?

Yes, a huge one in the front garden that was far too close to the house
When we moved in the neighbour cut down about 6 that were on the border
One of them was dead

What did your survey say?
I'd possibly ring your insurance company and ask for advise?

I think we will have to ring the insurance company
We are in an area that is all built on sand
The whole town is sinking
Some roads are like roller coasters

Have you seen the Dr Who episode!? (I know not actually helpful. Good luck x)

Can you fit your fingers in? I don't really know anything about cracks but I remember an episode of Homes under the Hammer where they said it really should be checked if you can!

How far away was the tree? Could be ground heave as a result.

The ground swells when the tree stops sucking water out of the ground and pushes the foundations apart.

You need to contact a surveyor or a structural engineer for advice. Possibly underpinning needed.

what are the wto walls made of?

Are there walls on the next floor up, supported by them?

wto - two

Both walls are internal bricks
There is no wall above, it's a flat roof above the back wall with the cracks

so I expect the outside wall holds the roof up. Are they both outside walls, or is one an internal partition?

They are both internal walls
The wall on the right is the kitchen and the ate room behind the wall with the crack is the downstairs loo, then behind that is the hallway and the front door

There are several things to do. Firstly, I would contact a Structural Engineer who has experience of defects brought about by ground conditions in your area.

You need to consider if the external walls are affected. The cracks show two walls pulling away from each other and it could be “heave” where the ground effectively swells up and pushes the walls outwards and away from each other. This may be due to trees having been cut down and allowed more water to be retained by the soil, or a leaky drain/pipe under the house. As you are built on sandy soil, normally well draining, it may not be heave. Heave is far more common on clay soil which retains moisture a lot more.

However, get it checked. The foundations may be insufficient or the ground under the internal walls could just be too wet from leaking water.

Underpinning is normally a solution for subsidence. That is the opposite of heave and happens when the building starts to sink due, often, to inadequate foundations for the soil conditions. (Heave is where soil rises up and pushes walls outwards). A Structural Engineer will be able to look at the cracks, look at the outside walls to see if they are out of alignment, test the ground, excavate the foundations and find out exactly what is wrong and propose a remedy. They will also help with your insurance claim if there is a problem. If the cracks are where walls join and the walls are of different ages, it could be a building fault where the joining of the two walls has not been done in accordance with the land conditions, ie shoddy building.

Thank you everyone
I guess I'm going to need more than a box of polyfilla