Harmless cracks??

guineapiggirl09

We are buying a house and have found one in our ideal location. The house is semi-detached, 1960s. It needs a lot of work including a new kitchen, bathroom and complete redecoration. On our last viewing I noticed that on the first floor there are some thin cracks in the plaster in some of the internal walls. There is also cracking between the wall and ceiling in some places. All the cracks are very thin and aren't wider at either end. They are all either vertical or slightly diagonal (apart from the ones between the wall and ceiling obviously).

My question is whether they are anything to worry about. There are no cracks anywhere on any exterior walls. They all seem to be nearish to the bathroom so I wondered whether it might have been as a result of humidity after the double glazing was fitted?

wallbash

1960s. It needs a lot of work

Would be very surprised if there were no cracks.
If the walls had wallpaper , you would never had noticed.

My question is whether they are anything to worry about.

Without further details, site visit, photo's etc etc no one can be 100% sure but a few thin cracks would be very low on my check list.

27col

Nothing there that a tube of decorators caulk wouldn't fix.

giblet1979

Unlikely to be a prob, but might be worth getting homebuyers survey (few hundred extra but I think it's worth it) and this should alleviate concern x

WobblyDog

Difficult to be certain, particularly without a photograph, but they sound smaller than the cracks in the 1960s house my Mum has just bought (which hasn't seen a can of paint since 1975).

My Mum's new house had a homebuyer's survey done by an unusually thorough surveyor, who assured us that they were just due to shrinkage of the plasterboard and supporting timbers. So far, he's been proved right, and the cracks are responding well to caulk and Polyfilla.

Get a homebuyer's survey done, ideally by a surveyor who really knows their stuff.