Is this likely to be subsidence or some other movement?

[CambsBill]

Calling out to the PH massive before going down the structural surveyor route. My Dad passed away just before Christmas and in clearing his house we've uncovered this crack in one of the upstairs bedrooms. The wall's in the middle of the house (semi), with the outside wall to the left of the picture. Put another way, the wall is at right angles to the wall that separates the two semis. The crack is hairline at the top & 1.5 - 2mm at the bottom.

This is FAR from my area of expertise but I'd have thought that subsidence to the outside wall would show itself as the wall on the left dropping, ie the crack going from top left to bottom right, and that this might be something like the rafters settling & pushing the top of the wall outwards. As I'm one of the executors I need to decide what to do before marketing the house.

Can't see any other cracks in other walls.

Thanks all in advance.

[bennno]

Two options,

1- Leave as is

2. Scrape crack out, fill crack with r-kem, then fill, sand and decorate.

bear in mind if you get it professionally assessed you'd then need to declare the finding.

Is the wall solid below or is there a doorway? Does the crack carry on down. Id suggest its more likely to be settlement.

Edited by bennno on Thursday 2nd January 09:24

[Acorn1]

Any visible cracks on the outside wall?

Doesn’t look like too much to worry about to me.

[CambsBill]

bennno said:

Two options,

1- Leave as is

2. Scrape crack out, fill crack with r-kem, then fill, sand and decorate.

bear in mind if you get it professionally assessed you'd then need to declare the finding.

Is the wall solid below or is there a doorway? Does the crack carry on down. Id suggest its more likely to be settlement.

Edited by bennno on Thursday 2nd January 09:24

There is a doorway below, the corner of which roughly tallies with where the bottom of the crack is.

[CambsBill]

Acorn1 said:

Any visible cracks on the outside wall?

Doesn’t look like too much to worry about to me.

Nothing I can see on the outside wall.

[TA14]

Acorn1 said:

Any visible cracks on the outside wall?

Doesn’t look like too much to worry about to me.

I would agree. The general shape of the crack is a settlement type of crack but the tapering is upside down. Could be related to floor construction (bouncing/deflecting) or heave. You'd need to do a detailed assessment of the whole house construction to properly understand however if there's no bulging of the walls or leaning then this is only a minor crack and it's easiest to just market the house and let the buyer's surveyor make comment (if they say that the house is falling down then get your own structural engineer assessment) but the most likely scenario appears to be: remove plaster, point brickwork and then replaster - or some would just redecorate with a thick wallpaper.

[.:ian:.]

Remove a section of plaster around the crack and see how far into the wall the crack goes.

Ideally its only in the plaster, though 2mm sounds like its not going to be.

[Chumley.mouse]

Has that bed seen any serious action recently?

[wolfracesonic]

CambsBill said:

There is a doorway below, the corner of which roughly tallies with where the bottom of the crack is.

Could be connected to the lintel over said doorway, looking at the pic and guessing the age of the place I’d say it’s most likely timber. Given it’s an internal wall, more likely to be not enough bearing rather than rot, or it may be undersize, though as always with these things you need an expert on site.

[CambsBill]

Chumley.mouse said:

Has that bed seen any serious action recently?

That'd be telling

[CambsBill]

wolfracesonic said:

CambsBill said:

There is a doorway below, the corner of which roughly tallies with where the bottom of the crack is.

Could be connected to the lintel over said doorway, looking at the pic and guessing the age of the place I’d say it’s most likely timber. Given it’s an internal wall, more likely to be not enough bearing rather than rot, or it may be undersize, though as always with these things you need an expert on site.

Oddly though, there's no continuation of the crack on the ground floor between the ceiling & the top of the door.

House is 1940's build so far as I can tell (plot was bought in January '39 so unless they cracked on i suspect WWII got in the way of any new build work.

[MarcelM6]

Based on my personal recent buying experience, any cracks in a property are problematic - it goes like this:

- mortgage lender appoints surveyor
- surveyor finds every possible little crack and says it could be due to several indeterminate factors so values property at 0 (covering backside)
- Structural engineer inspects and agrees there are cracks but that could be due to movment that is impossible to determine so suggests a geotechnical survey
- get quote for geotechnical survey from 3 different companues....jaw hits floor
- pull out of purchase.

However, now that this process has been completed and the estate agent is informed the property is effectively un-mortgageable until geotechnical survey and any remedial work is done. Probably 5 figure bill.

We really liked the house and feel desperately sorry for the vendors who are in their 80s. They will now have to take on a significant project.

[Skyedriver]

No crack above the picture rail?
Chase out, decent filler (not up to date with modern stuff) then repaint.
Or paper over the crack as a previous poster suggested.
If it's an internal wall I wouldn't be unduly worried. The concrete beneath the wall has possibly not been up to the job. Bigger worry would be red shale below a concrete floor but the house is too old for that and it would show elsewhere.

Just thought; is it an original wall or a later addition, any founds at all or built up off the original floor.

[dxg]

Any drains in the vicinity?

[Cow Corner]

I’m not going to attempt to diagnose a specific issue from one photograph, but generally surveyors should refer to BRE 251 guidance when assessing cracks in residential buildings - See summary table excerpt below, you may be able to find the full document online.

[CambsBill]

Thanks all and just to finish off this thread I took the majority view (helped by the final post in particular) and decided to fill the crack & paint over. Didn't take as long as I thought it might & happy with the end result.

Thanks all.