I moved into my house a couple of years ago.

Over the last few weeks I have noticed several cracks on the interior wall painting. I am almost positive they were not there before.

They are in different rooms, but the most obvious ones are on one side of the property, on the top floor and the floor below.

The cracks are mainly horizontal, 1-2 milimeters wide and 2-5 meters long.

How do I identify the cause?

Many possibilities occur to me:

1. Paint contracting due to the dry central heating air.
2. Weight and vibrations of washing machine plus dryer nearby
3. Small non-important movement of the building
4. Serious structural fault

The house was built in 1926, wooden joist floors. The top two floors do show some settlement in a different part of the house (about 7-8 cm drop over 5 meters of floor) that apparently stopped long time ago. The property was painted to a good standard about 6 years ago.

Other than that, the house seems to be in quite good condition.

Regards,

Antonio

asalcedo wrote:
I moved into my house a couple of years ago.

Over the last few weeks I have noticed several cracks on the interior
wall painting. I am almost positive they were not there before.

They are in different rooms, but the most obvious ones are on one side
of the property, on the top floor and the floor below.

The cracks are mainly horizontal, 1-2 milimeters wide and 2-5 meters
long.

How do I identify the cause?

Many possibilities occur to me:

1. Paint contracting due to the dry central heating air.
2. Weight and vibrations of washing machine plus dryer nearby
3. Small non-important movement of the building
4. Serious structural fault

The house was built in 1926, wooden joist floors. The top two floors
do show some settlement in a different part of the house (about 7-8
cm drop over 5 meters of floor) that apparently stopped long time
ago. The property was painted to a good standard about 6 years ago.

Other than that, the house seems to be in quite good condition.

Regards,

Antonio

Since the cracks are horizontal you could almost rule out it's foundation
movement? as most foundation cracks appear verticaly or vertically zigzaged
up the wall.

Could be anything from the plaster if new? being dried out with a blower
instead of naturally drying, heat directed at the newly plastered wall does
make the plaster crack particulary if it's a thin coat(skim).

Plaster boarded walls tend to show up cracks if the gaps have no matting to
conceal the gaps before plastering.


--
Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

"asalcedo" wrote in message
...

I moved into my house a couple of years ago.

Over the last few weeks I have noticed several cracks on the interior
wall painting. I am almost positive they were not there before.

They are in different rooms, but the most obvious ones are on one side
of the property, on the top floor and the floor below.

The cracks are mainly horizontal, 1-2 milimeters wide and 2-5 meters
long.

How do I identify the cause?

Many possibilities occur to me:

1. Paint contracting due to the dry central heating air.
2. Weight and vibrations of washing machine plus dryer nearby
3. Small non-important movement of the building
4. Serious structural fault

The house was built in 1926, wooden joist floors. The top two floors do
show some settlement in a different part of the house (about 7-8 cm drop
over 5 meters of floor) that apparently stopped long time ago. The
property was painted to a good standard about 6 years ago.

Other than that, the house seems to be in quite good condition.

Regards,

Antonio


--
asalcedo

Sounds a bit like my house, 1939, one wall probably dropped an inch over
that time and skewed the doorframes on that side of the house. I've just
finished
replacing 5 bricks on the outer skin that were cracked in half by the
movement - previous owners were content with putting mastic in the crack!

I've had some wall/ceiling interface cracks open up this autumn, a bit
perturbing but it's difficult to ascertain the cause. I am suspicious of the
fine warm autumn we have had, in that it may have caused some change in the
soil ( my brother's house has cracks that are seasonal, so it does happen ).

If your cracks are horizontal, perhaps your roof truss restraints are
relaxing: the roof then spreads outwards under its own weight and takes the
wall with it. This leads to horizontal cracks as part of the wall tilts out
with the roof movement, whilst lower parts remain upright. Usually
visible near the roofline though AFAIK.

Otherwise, the thing I would do is keep an eye on things. In fact make notes
or glue a tell-tale in position. The usual culprits to look for are trees
near the house, and burst sewers or water mains. Another potential problem
is to do with cavity wall ties failing, and the cavity wall leafs are then
too slender to remain stable in some cases, so bulging can occur, which
might cause visible cracking. I imagine the test for hat would be to inspect
inside the cavities witha camera or check the profile of the inner/outer
walls to see if they are flat or bulged.

All things to consider anyway, but probably the only
practical thing you can do is watch and keep notes for a year or three and
see if this problem is progressive.

Just my opinion,

Andy.

In article ,
says...

I moved into my house a couple of years ago.

Over the last few weeks I have noticed several cracks on the interior
wall painting. I am almost positive they were not there before.

They are in different rooms, but the most obvious ones are on one side
of the property, on the top floor and the floor below.

The cracks are mainly horizontal, 1-2 milimeters wide and 2-5 meters
long.

How do I identify the cause?

Many possibilities occur to me:

1. Paint contracting due to the dry central heating air.
2. Weight and vibrations of washing machine plus dryer nearby
3. Small non-important movement of the building
4. Serious structural fault

5. Cables under the plaster.

Thank you for your comments.

Ruling out foundation movement is comforting. Thanks.

The plaster is not new. I don't think it has been changed for at least 10 years.

And, no, there are no cables underneath.

The most obvious crack is located along the middle of the coving in the celing on one side of the building.

The next most obvious crack is located on the floor above, on the same side but further along, not on the same vertical, along the union of the vertical wall and the sloping wall formed by the roof.

Thanks,

Antonio

Does old plaster just show up age in this manner?

Rob Morley wrote:
[snip]
5. Cables under the plaster.

?
--
Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite