Any ideas what these lines on the ceiling are?

[Lottie917]

So the last couple of months I've noticed these lines on our ceilings - I've added photos and marked up where the lines are as it's difficult to get a good pic with the light and textured ceiling.

They're on both our downstairs and upstairs ceilings and in every room / hallway, etc. so not isolated to one place. I'm fairly sure they're relatively new at the tail end of last year, that's when I started to notice them. We've lived here for 8 years and I can't say I've really noticed them prior to last summer. The house was built in 2000 I believe.

They don't move when pushed. They run the whole length of the house. They're not wet/damp and we've not had any leaks or issues like that, that we're aware of. I thought it might be ghosting but there is a visible ridge where these lines are. Is this just a normal house thing or should I be asking someone professional to take a look do you think? It's driving me mad not knowing what it is 🤦🏼‍♀️👀

It might be if you have lath and plaster ceilings that some has loosened. So if you take up the floorboards on the floor above you might see that there is disturbance of the lath and plaster and that it’s a bit crumbly, causing slight warping to the ceiling

Bumping for you OP and I’m interested to know the answer too!

If your ceilings were made using plasterboard it might be the edges of boards you can see.

Build year 2000 then the ceiling is plasterboard if UK
Is it the joints in plasterboard

tbh I can’t see the cracks but if they are straight then id assume it’s a joint

Aliens

Ghosting?

Are you sure it was built in the 2000's? I didn't think they still did artex then and it stopped in about 1980. Not to worry you, but have you ever tested it for asbestos? You can buy kits to test yourself. That would be my concern more than the lines TBH.

Artex was still used after 2000 it’s just a different type ie no asbestos

Thanks everyone for the replies so far! Yep we are in the UK.

The lines are very straight and in our living room (the biggest room) I've just noticed you can pretty much see a full outline of a rectangle so more than likely the plasterboard then. I'm guessing I don't really need to do anything unless any of them start fully coming away and cracking the ceiling? I just find it odd that all the ceilings are doing it at the same time.

@7238SM no worries, we had it tested as part of a survey before we moved in and we're all good 😊 the whole estate we're on was built 2000-2004, many properties near us that originally had Artex ceilings like ours have had their ceilings skimmed throughout the house - I'm assuming either for a more modern look or to avoid concerns for having an Artex style ceiling when trying to sell, etc.

If they are coming away you could try screwing them back into the joists
Then fill the screw holes to cover up
This will avoid it getting any worse

@DrPrunesqualer oh okay, thank you for the advice. Will try this on a particularly bad looking one in the living room.