Hi, my house is a five-year old newbuild, and has a 'cloakroom'
underneath the stairs. Recently I have noticed that gaps have been
appearing between the skirting on the stairs and the rest of the wall -
a few mm at the moment, but enough to worry me.

From the cloakroom, you can see what seems to be a large chunk of the
stairs skirting is plastered into the wall - this has started to crack,
and in fact when someone is walking up the stairs you can actually see
this move slightly.

Occasionally I've also heard a cracking noise whilst I have been in the
sitting room which might be caused by this (it could also be the metal
door exterior cooling down, but I am getting paranoid at times - my
missus is pregnant, etc)

Is this all normal? Is there danger of this getting worse ? Should I
get someone in under NHBC (which I note doesn't cover us for work under
=A3500)

I can't find info on this anywhere - all help appreciated.

--
DD