Hi everyone,

We would appreciate some advice on the below issue:

There are cracks apearing on some if the walls through out an area of the
house (internal) and I need to asatain if there is a serious problem.
When I recently had a small room upstairs re plastered I noticed there was
some decay upstairs between the iner suporting wall and a small gap between
the iner and outer wall.

There are also cracks on both the ground and 1st floor internal walls. The
cracks in the house have been increasing over the last month both in size and
areas.
Please advise. If you can help!

--
for full context, visit http://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy/...s-1168504-.htm

On Thursday, 10 November 2016 02:14:03 UTC, RMann wrote:
Hi everyone,

We would appreciate some advice on the below issue:

There are cracks apearing on some if the walls through out an area of the
house (internal) and I need to asatain if there is a serious problem.
When I recently had a small room upstairs re plastered I noticed there was
some decay upstairs between the iner suporting wall and a small gap between
the iner and outer wall.

There are also cracks on both the ground and 1st floor internal walls. The
cracks in the house have been increasing over the last month both in size and
areas.
Please advise. If you can help!

--
for full context, visit http://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy/...s-1168504-.htm

It sounds like cavity wall tie failure to me.
New ones can be retro-fitted, so don't let anyone make a big job out of this. It's a simple procedure.
It will have to be looked at by an expert. ie a local builder.

Example:-
http://www.ancon.co.uk/products/wall...dial-wall-ties

Others can be glued in.

On Thursday, 10 November 2016 07:36:48 UTC, harry wrote:
On Thursday, 10 November 2016 02:14:03 UTC, RMann wrote:
Hi everyone,

We would appreciate some advice on the below issue:

There are cracks apearing on some if the walls through out an area of the
house (internal) and I need to asatain if there is a serious problem.
When I recently had a small room upstairs re plastered I noticed there was
some decay upstairs between the iner suporting wall and a small gap between
the iner and outer wall.

There are also cracks on both the ground and 1st floor internal walls. The
cracks in the house have been increasing over the last month both in size and
areas.
Please advise. If you can help!

It sounds like cavity wall tie failure to me.
New ones can be retro-fitted, so don't let anyone make a big job out of this. It's a simple procedure.

Or it might be something else.

It will have to be looked at by an expert. ie a local builder.

That's about the last person you want to diagnose structural issues.


NT

On Thursday, 10 November 2016 02:14:03 UTC, RMann wrote:
Hi everyone,

We would appreciate some advice on the below issue:

There are cracks apearing on some if the walls through out an area of the
house (internal) and I need to asatain if there is a serious problem.
When I recently had a small room upstairs re plastered I noticed there was
some decay upstairs between the iner suporting wall and a small gap between
the iner and outer wall.

There are also cracks on both the ground and 1st floor internal walls. The
cracks in the house have been increasing over the last month both in size and
areas.
Please advise. If you can help!

A friend brought a new build property and he was told for the first year or two cracks might appear due to subsidence and was give a contact number via the estate agent if this should happen and it did. They just filled them.
well they weren't large so....

I don't have any experience on this but is it a new or old property.
At worst it could be the start of a sink hole

Age of house, and internal wall construction, this time of year radiator feed pipes heating up can cause vertical cracks

RMann wrote:
Hi everyone,

We would appreciate some advice on the below issue:

There are cracks apearing on some if the walls through out an area of
the house (internal) and I need to asatain if there is a serious
problem. When I recently had a small room upstairs re plastered I noticed
there was some decay upstairs between the iner suporting wall and a
small gap between the iner and outer wall.

Not very clear.

do you mean there is a gap where an internal wall meets an external wall? -
if this is the case then there's a serious issue here. The external wall is
moving away from the internal walls - the internal walls will stay where
they are when the external walls start to fall over....also it's unlikely to
be wall tie failure as mentioned elsewhere - when wall ties fail, the
external leaf of brickwork parts company with the internal leaf, that is,
the cavity gets wider, the internal leaf of the outside wall doesn't
generally move away from the internal walls.

There are also cracks on both the ground and 1st floor internal
walls. The cracks in the house have been increasing over the last
month both in size and areas.
Please advise. If you can help!

Not really expecting a reply to this post as those who use that website to
post here rarely, if ever, reply to replies, but on the off chance you do
venture back here and see this, get a structural surveyor in pronto as
something dangerous appears to be going on, and if it's been noticable
within the short space of a month, I personally would not sleep in that
house one more night, and this isn't some amateur panicking, I've been in
the building industry since leaving school in 1979. Houses don't fall down
for no reason - someone has made a serious structural mistake at some point
in the past year or two and these are the results.

replying to harry, Rue MannChew wrote:
Thank you so much for the info! Very helpful.

--
for full context, visit http://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy/...s-1168504-.htm

replying to harry, Rue MannChew wrote:
Thank you so much for the info! Very helpful.

--
for full context, visit http://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy/...s-1168504-.htm

On 10/11/16 19:10, Phil L wrote:
RMann wrote:
Hi everyone,

We would appreciate some advice on the below issue:

There are cracks apearing on some if the walls through out an area of
the house (internal) and I need to asatain if there is a serious
problem. When I recently had a small room upstairs re plastered I noticed
there was some decay upstairs between the iner suporting wall and a
small gap between the iner and outer wall.

Not very clear.

do you mean there is a gap where an internal wall meets an external wall? -
if this is the case then there's a serious issue here. The external wall is
moving away from the internal walls - the internal walls will stay where
they are when the external walls start to fall over....also it's unlikely to
be wall tie failure as mentioned elsewhere - when wall ties fail, the
external leaf of brickwork parts company with the internal leaf, that is,
the cavity gets wider, the internal leaf of the outside wall doesn't
generally move away from the internal walls.

I've seen it happen once - in the house I grew up in. My bedroom - the
solid double brick external wall moved slightly away from the
breezeblock inner wall and opened a gap of about 1/2".

My dad cleaned it out, stuffed it with 3:1 mortar and plastered over. It
never moved after that. Not saying the mortar was holding it - just that
it was probably a one off slight movement that found its new position
and was happy after that.

Tim Watts wrote:
On 10/11/16 19:10, Phil L wrote:
RMann wrote:
Hi everyone,

We would appreciate some advice on the below issue:

There are cracks apearing on some if the walls through out an area
of the house (internal) and I need to asatain if there is a serious
problem. When I recently had a small room upstairs re plastered I
noticed there was some decay upstairs between the iner suporting
wall and a small gap between the iner and outer wall.

Not very clear.

do you mean there is a gap where an internal wall meets an external
wall? - if this is the case then there's a serious issue here. The
external wall is moving away from the internal walls - the internal
walls will stay where they are when the external walls start to fall
over....also it's unlikely to be wall tie failure as mentioned
elsewhere - when wall ties fail, the external leaf of brickwork
parts company with the internal leaf, that is, the cavity gets
wider, the internal leaf of the outside wall doesn't generally move
away from the internal walls.

I've seen it happen once - in the house I grew up in. My bedroom - the
solid double brick external wall moved slightly away from the
breezeblock inner wall and opened a gap of about 1/2".

My dad cleaned it out, stuffed it with 3:1 mortar and plastered over.
It never moved after that. Not saying the mortar was holding it -
just that it was probably a one off slight movement that found its
new position and was happy after that.

Yep, seen that a few times myself but it's unusual.

Cracks growing visibly in length or width inside the space of a month are
generally very bad news. If the external walls are sinking, and it sounds
like they are, the internal ones, being built up off the internal floor stay
put, this is noticable when plaster cracks upwards towards the bedroom
ceiling at 45 degrees on internal wall, starting from an external wall

On 11/11/16 17:20, Phil L wrote:
Tim Watts wrote:
On 10/11/16 19:10, Phil L wrote:
RMann wrote:
Hi everyone,

We would appreciate some advice on the below issue:

There are cracks apearing on some if the walls through out an area
of the house (internal) and I need to asatain if there is a serious
problem. When I recently had a small room upstairs re plastered I
noticed there was some decay upstairs between the iner suporting
wall and a small gap between the iner and outer wall.

Not very clear.

do you mean there is a gap where an internal wall meets an external
wall? - if this is the case then there's a serious issue here. The
external wall is moving away from the internal walls - the internal
walls will stay where they are when the external walls start to fall
over....also it's unlikely to be wall tie failure as mentioned
elsewhere - when wall ties fail, the external leaf of brickwork
parts company with the internal leaf, that is, the cavity gets
wider, the internal leaf of the outside wall doesn't generally move
away from the internal walls.

I've seen it happen once - in the house I grew up in. My bedroom - the
solid double brick external wall moved slightly away from the
breezeblock inner wall and opened a gap of about 1/2".

My dad cleaned it out, stuffed it with 3:1 mortar and plastered over.
It never moved after that. Not saying the mortar was holding it -
just that it was probably a one off slight movement that found its
new position and was happy after that.

Yep, seen that a few times myself but it's unusual.

Cracks growing visibly in length or width inside the space of a month are
generally very bad news. If the external walls are sinking, and it sounds
like they are, the internal ones, being built up off the internal floor stay
put, this is noticable when plaster cracks upwards towards the bedroom
ceiling at 45 degrees on internal wall, starting from an external wall



Agreed - the crack I witnessed for growing for years, then seemed to
stabilise. So my Dad fixed it as well as trying to soak out, then block
the oil stain that seeping through from the small flue behind that used
to have an oil boiler connected.

It seemed to stay fixed for the next 10 years until the house was solved.