Diagonal cracks under windows?

[Carm10]

We recently bought a house and we discovered a leak under the kitchen concrete. Now I’m starting to see cracks over doors and besides windows 😣 does it seems serious? It seems like it was covered and now is reappearing again other room has another going from lower corner to corner of the wall with floor. subsidence comes to my mind

Are the cracks visible through to the outside walls? Did you have your own survey done before you purchased the house? If not it might be worth getting a surveyor in to have a look. Hopefully it's nothing serious.

Definitely get a surveyor in. We had this and it was because the window had been replaced without installing a suitable lintel, so it was cracking the wall. Survey picked it up before we bought it though so if you had a survey done it might be worth giving them a call.

Not subsidence though (in our case)!

I had a surveyor in when I bought the house, but he didn’t pick up on any of this. I cannot get him to return as he failed to warn us against something else and we re trying to come to an agreement with him. I might try someone else, just means more money when a lot has been already spend in the other numerous issues 😞

At first glance that crack doesn't look too serious, but if you are worried or it gets worse then consider speaking to either an RICS surveyor, or a structural engineer.
Cracks like this under windows and over doors are very common and can be found in most houses. Buildings move and cracks will appear, but usually they aren't an issue unless they get to be quite a bit larger.

@SurveyorScott see this picture, it goes around the window frame, it seems like the previous owner covered it but it has appeared again :-S

That looks like shrinkage of the caulking (silicone) around the frame, are the windows newly installed?

The previous owners installed them id say about 10 years ago (judging by other works done around the house). I hope is that, between damp, roof issues and i baby i couldn't cope (financially or emotionally) with another problem.

The diagonal crack plus that 1mm gap in the frame raised my alarm bells (and i discovered its better not to google about wall cracks at nighttime... scary stuff!)

It is very slight in that it hasn't breached the paint yet. I wonder if it is the plaster drying out?

It's quite possible that the previous owners have made good before you bought the property and the minor movement is just manifesting itself once more.

Without carrying out an inspection its impossible to be sure, but the size of the crack in the plaster is very minimal. If the crack gets larger and become 'progressive' then you should maybe consult someone but it would have to be quite a lot worse to be of major concern (when viewed in isolation as this is).

Try not to worry, its likely to be just the natural movement that all buildings experience :)

@SurveyorScott thank you, you are a star. I'll take some pictures and keep an eye on it. :-)

No problem at all

You could ask a structural engineer rather than a surveyor.

We have cracks like the diagonal one on the front (east facing) wall of our house, upstairs and down. Apparently (according to two surveyors) it’s because of thermal shift - that wall gets heated up relatively quickly every morning at sunrise. It’s nothing to worry about. The cracks are a couple of mm and don’t grow.