Worried about subsidence...

J

jz1

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Hi All

My house is only about 2 years old now, and there always seemed to be cracks in the plaster is the corners of the wall, and I never really bothered about it much, As I heard that new houses generally settle and had cracks in them and all that.

The cracks in the plaster mostly are in the corners and along where the ceiling meets the side walls and have generally been there since the first year or so, so never really worried about them.

A few weeks ago I was out in by back garden and noticed a small (very thin) crack under my bed room window sill on the first floor, I followed it down and it went halfway down , I checked it again this weekend and it now has joined up and met my back door. Its kinda in a zig zag pattern and not a straight line, it is very faint, but I am worried sick about subsidence. Will my house fall to the ground one day ? It is a mid terraced house and I dont see any cracks on my neighbours houses. The external wall is not a brickwork as such but something like a peble dash but not pebbles (so to speak) (but brick work underneath)
I was checking up on the web and I do have a small tree at the back of the garden - would this be a cause ?

I know I should get an expert in but any advice or help to calm my nerves would be greatly welcome !

Thanks
 
This is probably only shrinkage cracking. Sometimes, depending on ope size and locations you can get fine hairline cracks which run from cill to window head, resulting from a slight settlement and the weakness in the wall construction where you have a number of openings in the wall, closely spaced or located directly over one another. It's probably nothing to worry about unless cracks are greater than 1.5 to 2mm in width. If you are worried ask a builder friend/ someone in experienced construction to have a look first then if in further doubt consult a chartered engineer, which will probably cost about €400 or so for an opinion.
 
Thanks Carpenter,

I'll ask a friend if he'll have a look at it.

I hope it doesnt get any larger anyway :)

JZ1
 
If you are worried about cracks getting larger, you can fix things called "tell tales" over the cracks, these monitor ,movement over time and are an accurate means of measurement in these situations.
 
If the cracks are vertical or horizontal they are probably shrinkage cracks and not likly to be a problem (unless they get too big and let water in 1.5 - 2mm as Carpenter says.)
If they run diagonally down the wall they may well be subsidance cracks and should be investigated a bit more. Even if they are subsidance cracks I don't think you need to sleep under the bed just yet!:)
The zigzag cracks are probably following the concrete blocks in the wall.
 
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