"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
dg wrote:
On 16 Jan, 21:57, "Jo" wrote:
We had a kitchen extension built at the back of our Victorian the house
some
6 years ago. ?The last couple of years a number of hairline cracks
appeared
in various places at that end of the house, which we attributed to
settlement of the extension (and the particularly dry summers we were
experiencing). These cracks have been mainly in my daughter's room (the
kitchen is below) and the bathroom which is adjacent to her room.
Since then worryingly bigger cracks have appeared in our bathroom
(horizontally and vertically), the grout has cracked down the corners of
the
room, around the windowsill etc and all around the walls towards the
ceiling.

We asked a local surveyor to come and look and he said it was to do with
the
fact that one particular wall in the bathroom wasn't well supported as
the
joist ran the wrong way underfloor (the bathroom is a triangular shape -
cut
out from another room at some stage in the house's life). ?He told us to
move the heavy furniture away from the wall on the other side (in my
daughter's room) - which we did, but the cracks have got worse.

On top of all this cracks have now appeared all the way up the stairs
where
the wood skirt is now coming away from the wall, the dado rails are
moving
slightly too. The ceiling downstairs is showing lots of new cracks....I
could go on and on....and I thought it was all to do (initially) with
settlement of the extension. ?The whole bloomin' house seems to be on
the
move.

We want to redecorate our daughter's room but I'm loathed to start
because
it's bound to crack again as soon as we have decorated.

The extension will settle within a few seasons say 2 years.

In anycase, it should settle evenly, so that you don't get some parts
settling more than others and cracking.

Are these really settlement cracks or seasonal movement or normal
expansion and contraction. Settlement is a specific condition, and
will show tell-tale cracks.

The cause could be one of a number for other things, so the diagnosis
needs to be correct.

The surveyors comment on the floor/wall support does not seem to
explain all the other cracking.

dg

My guess is the foundations are crap.

It sounds horribly like early signs of subsidence due to shallow
foundations and nearby trees.

Shouldn't be....the house was underpinned in 1983