Cracks in Wall (interior)

Electra_King

Hoping for some advice. We have been living in our house for 6 years (house 11 years old). When we moved in there were a number of small cracks which we filled in and painted over. However over the last few months cracks have appeared in a number of rooms primarily in the corners. (That said I am sure they have been around for longer it is only now we are starting to notice them iykwim ) I have had a "quick" look outside but can’t see any cracks externally.

My questions:

Is this normal for a house of this age?
Do I just fill in and paint over?
Who is the best person (to call out) to check that these cracks are not serious?


Thanks in advance.

LandyAndy

How wide are the cracks?

27col

It is very unlikely that small cracks are serious. If they were, half the houses in the UK would be falling down. If the inside wall that is meeting the outer wall is made of different materials to the outer wall (ie is a stud wall), then it is quite likely that the cracking is due to the differential expansion between the two different materials of the two walls. Sometimes these joints are covered with a type of mesh, which tends to reduce the problem. However, sometimes they do not bother with the mesh, and cracking then becomes apparent. I suggest that you just use some decorators caulk on the cracks and see how it goes for a few months. If there is any sign of the problem getting more serious then maybe call someone in.

Plasticman

I've got cracks in the corners of my house. Mostly due to the kids jumping up and down and slamming the doors! Most houses have small cracks here and there.

chrest

I also have small cracks around my house. In two of the bedrooms they are in the corners, where directly underneath is the back door - so i assume the door being slammed causes these as we too have filled them only for them to reappear. We also have cracks across the ceilings upstairs which I put down to when my partner is walking on the beams up in the loft. HTH

Electra_King

Thanks for all your responses. :T

LandyAndy I tried measuring them this morning, on average they are 3mm but run floor to ceiling.

While measuring the worst culprit I touched the plaster and a 'chunk' fell out! :eek:

I have also noticed a few 'hairline' cracks running from the ceiling above the window.

27col Is there anything I should be looking out for? Who would I call out?

downs523

3mm running from floor to ceiling, thats quite bad, i have hairline cracks in my landing ceiling and my house is 3.5 yrs old

27col

First you said that the cracks were small and now you say they run floor to ceiling. Which is it, are they small or are they big. I would have thought that floor to ceiling was big.
I have had bigger cracks but all we did was to fill them and wait to see if they returned. Which they did not. It could just be due to initial settlement or differential movement between dissimilar materials. If you need to get someone to have a look, then I suppose it would be a surveyor. But unless there is a glaringly obvious building fault, I suspect that he would only put "tell tales" across the cracks and wait to see if the cracks got worse. Filling them in yourself would achieve much the same, as the fill that you put in the cracks would effectively be a "tell tale"

Electra_King

What I meant by small was that they were not very wide iykwim. Sorry for any confusion.

I remember seeing a program a long time ago, if I remember correctly they classed big cracks as ones you can fit a pound coin in the gap. That is what I based my observation on, I honestly did not think the length made any difference.

I will try and fill them and see if it gets any worse.

Thanks for the advice.