Garden wall cracked.

scooter100_2

My garden wall which is about 6 feet tall has developed a six feet long horizontal crack and a couple of smaller vertical cracks leading off the horizontal crack. The horizontal crack follows the line of the mortar whereas the vertical cracks follow the mortar and through the brick. I suspect this has been caused by tree roots. Would this brick wall be repairable or has the whole thing got to be pulled down and rebuilt?

iamcornholio

There may be several causes for this type of crack, and that will depend on how serious or urgent the repair work is.

Where is the crack in relation to the wall - top, middle, bottom, at one end?

Is the wall clay brick, and double brick thick (9") or single brick thick? Are there any piers or is it a straight wall?

scooter100_2

iamcornholio wrote: »

There may be several causes for this type of crack, and that will depend on how serious or urgent the repair work is.

Where is the crack in relation to the wall - top, middle, bottom, at one end?

Is the wall clay brick, and double brick thick (9") or single brick thick? Are there any piers or is it a straight wall?

Horizontally it is in the middle and vertically it is from the bottom.
No idea if clay its the same as the house walls. It's double brick . The wall is L shaped( the long part being about 25 foot long), with the short end of the L ending with a pier. The damage is on the long part of the L which has no pier the other end.

tony6403

Are there any control (expansion) joints. These - or maybe just one -will appear as straight vertical 10mm or so lines in the brickwork. Does the wall face south ?

iamcornholio

It's probably one of two things -

a section of foundation (and wall) may have dropped
or
the wall has expanded and pushed a section up

You can see which is which by looking along the wall or running a string line along the crack

The cracked wall in itself is not an issue, but the cause- and whether further movement is likely needs to be determined. If caused by tree roots, it may well close up again when the growing season stops

A third less likely reason, may be expansion of that mortar joint due to salts or rusting metal ties or something like that.

I would just monitor it over a year or so (four seasons)