Settlement cracks or something more sinister?

maguim

Friends of ours have noticed cracks appearing on a few internal walls in their house. They moved in about 2and a half years ago and the house was 2/3 years old then. The house should therefore still be under the 10 yr warranty but thought it was a little unusual that cracks had started to appear after 5 or so years. Would expect this in fairly recently plastered walls as they dry out but could this be down to intensely cold weather and perhaps having heat on more than in the past perhaps? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

sheerdelight

It all depends. Often hairline cracks open up above door/window or under window lintels. They shouldn't be more than hairline cracks. Sometimes c**p builders do not put lintels across small gaps in lower brickwork such as where drainage pipes go through walls and cracks can appear rising vertically above them. As long as they are not increasing in width is the main thing.

kltoddie

Ours were so bad we rang our house insurers (our house was about 10 years old at the time). They sent out a structural engineer. Good news: it's not subsidance, it's settling cracks, so my report will protect the value of your house. Bad news: your house insurance doesn't cover settling cracks.

Then this year I tried shopping around for home insurance. One insurer said, "I see you had a £750 claim for subsidance on your policy 3 years ago?". I tried explaining that it wasn't in fact subsidance, and that the £750 was the structural engineer's fee - we never received any money.

We still haven't got it fixed due to lack of funds - nearly every room needs plastering done, and in the hall bits of the ceiling are going to fall off