plaster cracks when it's sunny!!!

wild_tiger

i live in a 3 bedroomed pre1950's brick house semi detached.

my upstairs walls look normal at night but the next day if the sun comes out the plaster opens up about 10 inches down from the ceiling and i end up with a line along my walls, (it looks like someone has drawn a line with a marker pen) it happens in all 3 of my bedrooms. It is only on the inside of the exterior walls, in my hall way it runs right where the ceiling meets the walls so it is less noticable. All my walls are painted not papered. The council replastered one of the cracks but a new crack appeared further down the wall. The council aren't interested and say they might never be able to sort it. There does not seem to be any cracks on the outside of the house. Once the sun goes down the cracks disappear and the walls look normal again.

My neighbour has no problems on her side.

Its been like this for the 5 years i've lived here, it didn't bother me before because i thought the problem would be solved when the crack was replastered, i did not expect it to split further down

Any ideas??

wild_tiger

oh i put it here because we were thinking of buying the house

propertyman

I want say "try some factor 30 sunblock?"

But seriously....elements of the building are expanding in the heat causing the plaster to crack. It might be your house is steel framed or there is defect that has opened cracks eg in concrete panels that will expand and contract seasonally once they give in and have cracked.

One simple solution might be to use a flexible filler not plaster based , or a plaster with a suitable plasticiser to allow it to flex. If the cracked area is raked back to say 10mm either side of the crack, this will cope with movement , and may just expose the defect.

Perhaps try the worst area and a mist coat of paint, and monitor it to see if it works.

wild_tiger

Do you think its something the council should be trying to fix since at the moments it's a council house?

I also wonder if it could be something to do with the wooden windows, (my neighbour didn't have the same windows as me fitted because she owns her house) all the cracks lead to the window frames.

propertyman

It is possible either they are expanding, or if they are securely bolted in ( assuming they are PVCu) they might be restraining the other parts of the building hat are flexing

What is the building made of ?

As the council have fixed the other cracks perhaps they will do the same?

They may never fix the problem but a flexible plaster repair will manage the only problematic symptoms- cracking.

DVardysShadow

wild_tiger wrote: »

Once the sun goes down the cracks disappear and the walls look normal again.

Hmm. You know that the iris of the eye closes right up in sunlight, increasing the eye's ability to focus on small detail. I wonder if the cracks are there all the time and the sunlight just enables you to see them?

If you diisagree with that idea, it might be useful to mention how big the cracks are with and without sunlight.

wild_tiger

The council has filled one of the cracks twice, the first time the original crack cracked open, they came back and filled it again, racking it back deeper than the first time, a new cracked appeared further down than the original crack. So they managed to fix one crack but the wall just cracked again.
The windows are wood