cracks in the walls

tvaustin

I have lived in my maisenette for the past 7 years.
It is about 60 years old and we live over 2 floors and we have a 1 floor 'flat' underneath us.
Over the last few months I have noticed loads of cracks appearing in the walls. These are not just small cracks but proberly about 30cm+. I do not know what is causing these cracks?
We currently pay a service charge as the property is leasehold and amongst those services charges is buildings insurance however I do not know the terms etc.

I was wondering what could be causing these cracks? Is it our responsibility? I think the buildings insurance side of the service charge is only about £40 a year so I do not know what is covered? Should we have took out our own buildings insurance?

Cheers in advance

ormus

what is the building constructed of?

tvaustin

standard bricks and mortar

macman

Are the cracks just in the plaster or through into the masonry?
Are you just referrring to the external walls, as it's unlikely that the internal dividing walls are masonry.

darich

macman wrote: »

Are the cracks just in the plaster or through into the masonry?
Are you just referrring to the external walls, as it's unlikely that the internal dividing walls are masonry.

The last flat I lived in, built in the 60s had masonry internal walls.
As do most of the flats in the whole town.

tvaustin

Most of the cracks are on the outside walls (but inside if u know what i mean) a few of them are on the dividing walls inside the house.
If I could afford it I would replaster the whole house as the previous owners put layer upon layer of wallpaper on the walls (had to have 2 walls replastered when we moved in due to when we removed the wallpaper the plaster came off with it) and when u knock on the walls you can hear the plaster wanting to fall off but this is the case even when cracks are not visable.

How much would it cost to have the walls plastered in an average 3 bedroom house?

ormus

if the cracks are just in the plaster then its just matter of removing any loose plaster (poss whole walls of plaster) and replastering.

if the cracks are in the bricks then you may have major problems with subsidence.
insurance will not cover cracks in the plaster.

Plasterer

You won't be covered by any service charges or insurances for internal cracks on walls. Lived there 7 years and theyv'e just started to apear?

30 cm's long? over what period have these "grown" I don't want to cause you any alarm but if these cracks have just suddenly appeared there could be a multiple of possibilities (cracks don't just appear unless something has dramaticly happened ie building works going on downstairs, water pipes burst, road outside recently been subject to HEAVY traffic etc etc. Get a pencil and mark the ends of the cracks - In doing this you can see how bad and fast the cracks are developing - are they getting larger? I would do this first for a couple of weeks and see whats occuring.

If your plaster on solid walls sound hollow when tapped - your "wet plaster/render has blown and will need replacing - depending on how much has "blown" will determin the cost of correction. If ony a few feet has blown your plasterer won't charge you much to correct this and is then a simple case of skimming (average room £250-£300) However you need to investigate a little further as to why this has suddenly started happening? Any temperature change in the house? for whatever reason? building works traffic etc etc.
If the walls are completely "blown" expect to pay upto £1000 per room for correction.
Hope this helps
Regards
P

tvaustin

Cheers for the advice guys,

I will do what plaster suggested and mark the end of cracks with pencil.
I know we have put a lot of stuff up in the loft recently (multistacked on boards/beams)
With the cracks we do not know exactly how long they have been there for, as we just happened to spot them recently

Plasterer

tvaustin wrote: »

Cheers for the advice guys,

I will do what plaster suggested and mark the end of cracks with pencil.
I know we have put a lot of stuff up in the loft recently (multistacked on boards/beams)
With the cracks we do not know exactly how long they have been there for, as we just happened to spot them recently

Hmmm the loft thing wouldn't disrupt solid walls, If they havnt just appeared then sounds like the passage of time is the most likely, however do the penicl trick just to air on the side of caution.