Crack on wall/Ceiling upstairs - serious or superficial

iwant2asave

Hello,
We have a long thin crack on a wall/ceiling upstairs and wondered if there is an easy way to know if it is serious or superficial.  Pics attached.  It starts from the top of the door  and extends up to the wall with cracked plasterboard and across the ceiling to the far wall in a very thin line.  (There is also a mirrored crack on the other side of the wall).  There is an attic above this ceiling and this is an internal wall.

m0t

Which direction do the ceiling joists run, parallel to the wall or on to the top of it? 

When looking from above in the attic can you see anything resting on the top of the wall?

iwant2asave

m0t said:

Which direction do the ceiling joists run, parallel to the wall or on to the top of it? 

When looking from above in the attic can you see anything resting on the top of the wall?

Hello, 
Thanks for the reply.  The ceiling joists look to be almost parallel to the wall.  I checked in the the attic hatch and I couldn't see anything directly on top of the wall.

There were some heavy boxes of things near the loft hatch but not directly on the wall.  There are some other boxes that I couldn't easily get to which look to be partly on the wall (not sure if they are heavy).

m0t

If the joists run parallel to the wall then it's not holding anything up and the crack over the door is most likely superficial and caused by movement or the repeated closing of the door.

The ceiling crack being so straight looks like the edge of the plasterboard and again likely caused by movement.

iwant2asave

m0t said:

If the joists run parallel to the wall then it's not holding anything up and the crack over the door is most likely superficial and caused by movement or the repeated closing of the door.

The ceiling crack being so straight looks like the edge of the plasterboard and again likely caused by movement.

Thanks again for the reply.  Sorry I think I might have made a mistake on the wording of my last post.  I mean to say the joist looks to run parallel to the wall.  It's almost on top of the wall, perhaps a few centimeters to the side and parallel.
I'm probably going to have a check and remove anything else really heavy in the attic as I can't imagine that is a good idea to have 10kg+ items on the floor.
When you say "movement" is that something that can become worse/serious over time if movement is the cause.  Thanks again.

twopenny

The cracks from door to ceiling and the corner of the ceiling look identical in pattern to ones I had in my old house. They'd been there forever and would eventually reappear after decorating.

However it looks like dry wall so the problem is less easy to deal with than plaster onto brick.

Definitely worth the hassle of poking around above the problem and seeing what's there. It will put your mind at rest or give you something to deal with rather than worrying about it

m0t

iwant2asave said:

m0t said:

If the joists run parallel to the wall then it's not holding anything up and the crack over the door is most likely superficial and caused by movement or the repeated closing of the door.

The ceiling crack being so straight looks like the edge of the plasterboard and again likely caused by movement.

Thanks again for the reply.  Sorry I think I might have made a mistake on the wording of my last post.  I mean to say the joist looks to run parallel to the wall.  It's almost on top of the wall, perhaps a few centimeters to the side and parallel.
I'm probably going to have a check and remove anything else really heavy in the attic as I can't imagine that is a good idea to have 10kg+ items on the floor.
When you say "movement" is that something that can become worse/serious over time if movement is the cause.  Thanks again.

For the wall to be supporting the joist the joist should be at 90 degrees to the wall with the ends sat on it.

My suspicion is that this is an internal partition wall and the purpose is just to separate the rooms. One other way to check this would be to lift a floor board and check if you can see underneath the wall as partition walls are often built on top of the boards. This also makes them susceptible to cracking as the floor boards move with temperature changes and people walking across them.

Once the wall has cracked it is likely that the crack will just keep opening up. You can try filling it with a flexible decorators caulk.

The ceiling is most likely a result of movement between the plaster boards. If the boards were nailed to the joists then they can slowly work out over the years. Also your ceiling joists will be quite small and not designed for heavy loads and this can bend then and cause cracking.

Because that is an artex ceiling you'll struggle to fill the crack and match it in. Also depending on age artex can contain asbestos, if you are looking to decorate the room you could have someone over board the ceiling and plaster the new boards.