Stripping walls reveals scary cracks!

RussellAllen · Post by **RussellAllen** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 9:28 pm

Hi all,

We're first time buyers, and two weeks ago we got the key to our new house. :) Big time happy! Horrific decor job, but otherwise perfect house.

So our next action - we set out to get all the walls stripped back to the plaster so that we can put lining paper up and redecorate from scratch. In the process of stripping paper, we've discovered quite a few suprises, the biggie of which is:

(Note - some effort went into the below floor plan, so please bear with me! ) Above the stairs, there's a horizontal crack that runs wall labelled A, around 2mm wide. This crack then runs up the corner of walls A and B, across wall B, around to other side of wall C then into the box room along this same wall, and finally disappears down the corner between walls C and D.

Code: Select all

  ||    Box room     ||
  |'----D----.       ||
O ||/////////|       || Main room
u ||/////////C-------||
t |.---A----.|       ||
s ||--------B|       ||
i ||--------''       |'-------
d ||--------         |.-------
e ||--------         ||
  ||     Landing     || Second room
  |'-----------------'|

This suggests to me that this whole section of brickwork above the floor has "sunk" by around 2 mm? Does this sound massively expensive to put right?

Many thanks all,

Russ

thescruff · Post by **thescruff** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 9:35 pm

If there was nothing showing on the wallpaper it looks like it's been covered up, in which case you would have some re-dress to the vendor.

Can you post a pic.

RussellAllen · Post by **RussellAllen** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 10:03 pm

Hi all, attached two pictures, one showing the crack in the box room (for some reason there's wood in the stone work?) and second picture shows the crack on the cieling above the stairs with my hand for scale. Apologies about the poor image quality.

Russ

big-all · Post by **big-all** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 12:21 am

2mm is very very small and unlikly to be a big problem it falls within normal settlment

its only likly to be a problem if it continues to expand

RussellAllen · Post by **RussellAllen** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 8:27 pm

Thanks for the feedback guys, we're actually going to start up a blog to keep track of all the fun and games we're having with this new place, it's getting almost exciting!

Given that this property is 65 years old, and these cracks are likely long-standing (there's evidence of filler in one of the cracks that hasn't moved), I'm guessing this isn't an urgent one, but of course we'll get experts in to take a look.

Thanks again,

Russ