Crack in wall - What could be causing it?

[sophierosie]

I have just noticed two cracks coming down two of my internal walls at the top of my stairs. The house is a victorian semi. One crack coming down from the corner of the ceiling down the wall at the top of the stairs and then from the other ceiling corner towards the door frame.

Any ideas? I live near a train station and quite regularly feel the house move as trains go by. Could it be this causing it? Have looked round the rest of the house and the rest is fine.

Please tell me its nothing too sinister?

depends on width of crack. You have described an ordinary stress point anyway in the corner, I have them all over my victorian house (1837) so what you could do is smooth it over with a bit of filler and monitor it. I did that cos I was concerned (I was 'seeing' things when I started to look) but no more movement in 6 months.

Check the outside for leaky guttering too, and in the loft for stress bearing down on that point.

It will probably be fine

it's prob nothing... but you should measure it lenght and width and then just monitor it over the next few months. If no growth in either direction then just fill it and paint over , if it has got bigger then let your insurance company know and they will send a surveyor out who will prob also just monitor it for a few months too but at least you have alerted them to it. Don't worry though, it is highly likely to be nothing! But hard to say for sure without seeing the crack and knowing more about where you live etc

Thanks - It's only about a mm atm.

What should I look for in the loft?

Well, if it was in a corner for example where you'd just moved a heavy box around with christmas decorations in it for example or piled up a pile of stuff like I did and only noticed the ceiling was bulging after