Crack in ceiling below stud wall

sevenhills

I have a similar crack in my living room ceiling, it is evident through the ceiling wallpaper.
Similar cracks in the kitchen and bedroom too.
I believe they have been there since I moved in 5+ years ago, I just ignore them.

greensalad

Section62 said:

greensalad said:

Section62 said:

greensalad said:

There has always been a fairly straight crack across our entire kitchen ceiling since we moved in.

Is this the house you were asking about making some changes to the upstairs room layout a while back?  Or have I got the wrong one?

If it is, then is the stud wall above the crack either of the walls which run along the sides of the first floor landing area?  IIRC there was a suspicion they might be structural.

Yep it is that house but I don't think that's it!

So firstly I've realised it isn't the internal wall between our en suite and bedroom, it's actually matching up with the outer edge of our dormer extension. So it's an external wall with a window in it that is above this point. However that is also stud and timber construction.

I don't think it's caused by any of the work we did upstairs, as that was on the front side of the house and this would be the back wall of the house. 

We found the structural timbers when we did the work (we had to change our plans for that reason) but the only edits made to the original walls where cutting two openings in them, which are well away from this issue.

Are you sure that is the position of the (rear?) external wall?  If it is, then the right hand end/corner would appear to be above a window - which for structural/aesthetic resaons is usually avoided.

Being stud construction doesn't mean it isn't loadbearing - as per the two internal walls on the first floor.  Somehow the roof load has to be carried down to the foundations and this (as was the case in your previous thread) would cause me some concern as the layout lacks some of the features which are the norms of dealing with loads in traditional methods of domestic building.

I wouldn't necessarily suggest your alterations are the cause of the crack (especially as it has been there from the start) but it is possible there are structural elements above the kitchen ceiling which have (or are) moving from loads above.  This is why the "advice" from aoleks is wrong - the logic he uses incorrectly excludes the possibilty of a pre-existing structural issue.

If you are sure the external wall is above the kitchen then you need to get a structural engineer to inspect and advise.

Hmm I'm pretty sure, hard to deduce. I will do some proper measuring to get a better idea. 

I'm not sure what you mean by "If it is, then the right hand end/corner would appear to be above a window".

If it helps to explain the house, it is an original bungalow with a fairly square floorplan. A dormer extension was added, so the back and front walls of the upper are the dormer fronts. There is a conservatory off the back of the kitchen which is shown as the little room off the back with the french doors. 

I'm pretty sure the dormer ends where the crack is, as there's a little bit of the roof slope that would account for the distance between the gap and the back wall of the original house (not including the conservatory). 

Section62

greensalad said:

I'm not sure what you mean by "If it is, then the right hand end/corner would appear to be above a window".

See the image below - if the plans are correct and the first floor wall is on the pink line then the right hand end of that wall would be above a window (circled in green).

greensalad

Section62 said:

greensalad said:

I'm not sure what you mean by "If it is, then the right hand end/corner would appear to be above a window".

See the image below - if the plans are correct and the first floor wall is on the pink line then the right hand end of that wall would be above a window (circled in green).

It's a dormer extension, it doesn't go all the way to the edge of the house. I'll check when I can bear to go outside in the rain where the dormer ends in relation to the window! 

Section62

greensalad said:

It's a dormer extension, it doesn't go all the way to the edge of the house. I'll check when I can bear to go outside in the rain where the dormer ends in relation to the window! 

Yes, I'd picked up on the dormer point in your earlier posts.  The point was that if the pink line represents the presence of a structural element then you'd expect it to continue across to the right-side wall.  The alternative - if it doesn't - would be for the structural element to be cantilevered off the downstairs cloakroom walls, but that would be a bit of an unusual approach (e.g. it wouldn't be as cost effective).

There are other alternative scenarios, but my point was you need clarity on where the different walls are relative to each other.