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Cracks in my house!

22 replies

UnderCroft · 07/04/2019 11:57

I'm mid terrace, 1971 house and lived here 11 years. Literally in the last month these cracks have appeared on the ceiling and in walls. Who do I need to talk to to get advice? I will talk to my neighbours as it's highly likely they will have them too. No building work on any house on the street recently.

Cracks in my house!
Cracks in my house!
Cracks in my house!
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Thread gallery
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UnderCroft · 07/04/2019 11:58

In every upstairs room. Ceilings. Walls. The landing!

Cracks in my house!
Cracks in my house!
Cracks in my house!
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UnderCroft · 07/04/2019 12:00

One wall we only had painted in December so it's cracked since then!

Cracks in my house!
Cracks in my house!
Cracks in my house!
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WBWIFE · 07/04/2019 12:00

That is a lot of cracking. You need a structural engineer in I would say!

GoFiguire · 07/04/2019 12:05

Are you built on clay?

I live in a 1970s house and this happened to us last summer. I called out a structural engineer who was bloody useless but at least he said that the house wasn’t falling down. Apparently all the interior walls need knocking down and rebuilding.

A simple test is to get some polyfilla and smooth it over a test crack. If the crack reappears then you need to look at the underlying causes. If the crack does not reappear then the movement might have been a one-off.

Definitely talk to your neighbours. Are they doing any building work at the moment?

UnderCroft · 07/04/2019 12:09

I was thinking structural engineer but wondered if that was overkill but there are a lot of cracks!

Yes we're a clay village. Strange it's not been a problem in the last decade but weather might play a part in that.

That's a good idea re Polyfilla. Definitely no building work at all. These are a mixture of internal and external walls. All brick no plasterboard walls.

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GoFiguire · 07/04/2019 12:13

It could be that your foundations are moving - the hot dry summer will have dried out your clay (his is when our cracks appeared) and the recent rain might have swelled the clay up again. Do you have any external cracks? The structural engineer will be looking for those to measure the movement.

UnderCroft · 07/04/2019 12:14

That makes sense. Will take a look for external cracks too.

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GoFiguire · 07/04/2019 12:16

Our cracks...nothing to worry about, apparent Hmm

Cracks in my house!
Cracks in my house!
Cracks in my house!
UnderCroft · 07/04/2019 12:30

There's only these 3 areas of cracking downstairs. Mostly it seems to be upstairs. No external cracks I can see.

Cracks in my house!
Cracks in my house!
Cracks in my house!
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UnderCroft · 07/04/2019 12:31

@GoFiguire did you get those professionally looked at? What was the probable cause?

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GoFiguire · 07/04/2019 13:10

Yes, I freaked out and called in the structural engineer. He said that the walls are made of plaster board so when we get round tonredecorating, all the interior walls need knocking out and rebuilding. I’m not sure if he was reliable TBH. He cost £400.

Also, what sort of roof tiles do you have? We have concrete ones which weigh a tonne but don’t fly off in the wind (apparently). I’d love to replace them all with slate tiles but that would cost a fortune. My own non professional theory is that the heavy roof, plus gravity, plus moving clay, is making the house move and the interior walls are the weak stress points, hence the cracks. Could all be bollocks though.

UnderCroft · 07/04/2019 15:09

They are concrete I think although all our internal walls are brick so supposedly strong!

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Missnearlyvintage · 08/04/2019 22:36

I'm not sure if this will be helpful or not, but we live in a 1970s house with internal walls made from mixed materials in places, and have noticed cracking in places where the materials meet. All the rooms were wallpapered when we moved in and none of the wallpaper was damaged, even the vintage stuff, so I don't think that the movement can be large. The rooms are now painted which highlights any cracks.

An example is around most of our window lintels, which have been boxed in with wood or board before finishing with sand/cement and gypsum top coat. These are part of walls which are made from hollow block with the same backing and gypsum finishing coat. The cracks in these areas are sometimes unnoticeable, and sometimes open slightly depending on how the weather has been or if we have had the heating on a lot. No one has ever been concerned about them, and it was a builder who told us (when plastering over a crack as requested by us), that the house would never be crack free because of this mix of materials in some areas which will expand and contract at different rates to each other.

In the latest room I have redecorated, I have used decorator's caulk in one of the persistent cracks, and while the emulsion doesn't look quite the same on the caulk as it does on the rest of the wall, it does mean that if there is cracking at any point, it is only noticeable until the crack closes again, and then the caulk self heals giving the wall a smooth look. I will be doing this from now on I think as it has proved much more effective than filling with polyfilla or joint compound which doesn't have the flexibility needed.

Sorry if that is no help! If in doubt I think a structural engineer would probably be a good place to start, or a local builder maybe if you know a good one and trust their opinion? They obviously couldn't give you the certainty, but might be able to point you in the right direction if these are caused by something that needs fixing?

DonaldTramp · 09/04/2019 22:17

With that many cracks appearing that suddenly, the only sensible thing you can do is call in your insurance company. A lot of houses have been on the move in recent months because of the hot summer of 2018.

RottnestFerry · 09/04/2019 22:22

With that many cracks appearing that suddenly, the only sensible thing you can do is call in your insurance company

Be aware that if you claim for subsidence, you may find it very difficult to get insurance in future.

Ask me how I know!

DonaldTramp · 10/04/2019 23:11

Be aware that if you claim for subsidence, you may find it very difficult to get insurance in future

But if you've got subsidence, you need to deal with it, not bury your head in the sand because you're worried about what admitting you have a problem is going to do to your insurance!

RottnestFerry · 10/04/2019 23:50

But if you've got subsidence, you need to deal with it, not bury your head in the sand because you're worried about what admitting you have a problem is going to do to your insurance!

I'm not suggesting that any heads are buried. A surveyor will tell you if you have subsidence or not. If work needs doing, then involve the insurance company.

I had cracks in my house and I engaged a surveyor to investigate. I was in the middle of a divorce at the time and (ex) wife wanted the house sorted pronto then sold so she called the insurance company about the cracks. Meanwhile, I received my surveyor's report saying the cracks were the result of seasonal movement and nothing to worry about. The insurance company surveyor came to the same conclusion.

The following year my home insurance premium went through the roof. Apparently, the house now had a subsidence marker on it. It took me five years to get it removed.

Dickorydockwhatthe · 17/05/2020 11:29

@UnderCroft did you find out the cause of your cracks in the end??

UnderCroft · 17/05/2020 14:35

I took MN advice and also asked a surveyor friend of a friend and concluded decorating cracks from the wet winter hot summer house built on clay scenario.

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BubblesBuddy · 17/05/2020 17:54

There are several things to consider here. Can you see cracks outside? If not then it’s probably slight movement inside with where there are joins - ceiling to wall and wall to wall. DH would call them shrinkage cracks. As in the second posters pix. Serious cracks are usually obvious outside.

Never ever talk to your insurance company first. You might not need them so don’t speak to them until you know you need to. In the meantime get your own report from a Structural Engineer if you are worried. Mostly people worry when they don’t need to. However insurance companies can be stingy with payouts and having your own engineer might be useful in this scenario.,

Generally - subsidence is where foundations do not take the weight of the walls because the ground around them is too dry or has washed away and the weight of the house isn’t supported properly by the foundations. On the other hand, heave is where the soil is too wet and has expanded pushing the foundations upwards. Very typical of clay. You might see gaps appearing between the ceilings and the walls as the walls push outwards.

There is a possibility of this. Have any mature trees been cut down? This greatly affects water retention in clay. I would get the cracks looked at though.

Dickorydockwhatthe · 17/05/2020 22:14

Thank you, so what would normally be the solution? @undercroft did they ad use anything or have you just filled them in? We have issues with cracks 1930's build and have trees in the garden. I feel like we've brought a money pit 😭

UnderCroft · 17/05/2020 23:05

We haven't done anything yet as we're waiting until we want to sell and then doing an all over paint refresh (2 young DC so would quickly get trashed before anyone else saw it!). No trees at all in our case.

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