Cracks showing under first floor landing

[jayc89]

Our landing wraps around the stair case into the family bathroom. Over the last few months, the wall below this section has started to show some cracks, which are visible on both sizes of the wall. We stripped the wall paper and gave it a quick coat of paint when we moved in, so know they're quite new. The landing itself is un-level, but it was when we moved in (1850's house).

 

The wall with the cracks starts off as 9", just above ground level, and then reduces to single skin all the way up. The adjoining wall is 9" all the way up. 

 

Any ideas what might be going on?

[Bonner]

You have everything needed to generate cracks, doorways, lintels (probably timber) landing joists … most likely minor movement due to temperature and humidity. Nothing to worry about in a house of that age, unless it gets much bigger.

[jayc89]

26 minutes ago, Bonner said:

You have everything needed to generate cracks, doorways, lintels (probably timber) landing joists … most likely minor movement due to temperature and humidity. Nothing to worry about in a house of that age, unless it gets much bigger.

 

Certainly timber joists! I think they're 6x6s, although never measured them, poking right the way through the single skin wall. 

[Gus Potter]

5 hours ago, jayc89 said:

Any ideas what might be going on?

Yes it could just be seasonal movement.

 

Often folk see cracks and think "oh no the house is settling and going to fall down" in the next week.

 

Observe the door over the landing and see how it sits in the frame when shut. Often if things start to drop then the doors start binding.

 

If you want you can cut thin shims out of say a coke bottle and monitor the gap to a reasonable degree. If you can slip in 5 shims and a week or two later you can't then you can get a feel for how things are moving. You may find that once you put the heating for a few days the shims come slack. If the weather has been dry and warm then turns wet you should be able to detect that in the shims. This will give you an idea of how your house behaves on an almost week to week basis.

 

You'll be surprised just how much things move, but it can also set your mind at rest.. it's just the old house doing what it does.

 

To provide a bit of context. The major house buiders are tackling more and more difficult sites with less than favourable ground these days. They improve the ground, often by soil mixing using lime / cement etc. The new houses are designed not to settle more than 25mm over 50 years so even on a new house you can expect quite a lot of potential movement in the first few years as settlement is often not linear.

 

5 hours ago, Bonner said:

You have everything needed to generate cracks, doorways, lintels (probably timber) landing joists … most likely minor movement due to temperature and humidity. Nothing to worry about in a house of that age, unless it gets much bigger.

Bonner makes good points.

 

If you try the thing with the coke bottle shims let us know how you get on. Make sure you use don't mix the shims up.. keep them all together in groups for each gap, use tape to keep them together if need be (they are a cheep version of feeler gauges but not calibrated) or this could start to live in your head. The nice thing is that they are pretty flexible so can get round the odd bendy bit of wood. On doors push them in until you hit the door stop so you maintain the depth of penetration each time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jayc89]

Thanks @Gus Potter all really useful points. I had to laugh at the door comments, I'll take a picture of how out of whack some have become over the years, including the bathroom door - all historic movement now, but these cracks are certainly ongoing. 

 

Makes decorating the hallway a PITA.