Hairline crack starting from the top corner of the room

[Tyler]

Hi all there seems to be a weird hairline crack coming down from the corner of the room and i have that in a couple of the rooms upstairs. Just wondered if anyone has had anything similar and whether people think it is something serious or cosmetic

[lizzie]

I have some of those.......following with interest.

[jamiehamy]

Assuming the plasterer taped the joins, this is consistent with looking like shrinkage cracks? Is it the same pattern upstairs? 

[Jeremy Harris]

Looks like normal shrinkage cracking, if this is a relatively new build.  Pretty much any new build will tend to suffer from slight shrinkage/settlement cracks like this for the first year or two, as the house dries out and stabilises.  It will generally be a bit worse if the house sits with a relatively low internal humidity level, as this will be a lot lower than when the house was built, and if the house was wet plastered then there will be a very big humidity difference between the period when it was being plastered, where it may literally have been dripping wet inside, and when completed when it will tend to be a lot less humid.

[lizzie]

@JSHarris humidity...low levels more cracks that explains a lot! Thank you.

[Declan52]

It's just the join of the scrim cloth from the  ceiling to the wall.  It's a fairly regular thing to happen so nothing to worry about.  Just let your house dry out and move and shrink and when it stops,  about 18 months from the heating went on then you can start to sand and fill. 

[Tyler]

1 hour ago, jamiehamy said:

Assuming the plasterer taped the joins, this is consistent with looking like shrinkage cracks? Is it the same pattern upstairs? 

 

Hi Jamie, this is upstairs and i only have it in my two rooms upstairs , not noticed anything downstairs. The house is around 35 years old so not the newest but not that old either. 

Not sure about the plasterer 

[Tyler]

1 hour ago, Declan52 said:

It's just the join of the scrim cloth from the  ceiling to the wall.  It's a fairly regular thing to happen so nothing to worry about.  Just let your house dry out and move and shrink and when it stops,  about 18 months from the heating went on then you can start to sand and fill. 

 

Thanks for this Declan

 

[Tyler]

Thanks everyone for their responses!! Makes me feel a little easier about it

[ToughButterCup]

I once sold a newish house with cracks like yours.

The purchaser asked if I would reduce the price  on the basis of the cracks. I agreed to do so if could show me a house less than 12 months old without similar cracks.

Sold that day.... 

[Temp]

I've had and have virtually identical cracks. 

 

What I think happens is that the plaster on the ceiling shrinks pulling the plaster from the wall. The crack sometimes happens where the wall and ceiling meet but frequently you get these horizontal cracks about 2" lower down the wall. In my experience the 2" wide strip of plaster above the horizontal crack is usually stuck to the ceiling but loose from the wall. 

 

On previous houses I've bashed out the loose plaster which leaves big holes all along the top of the wall. The holes are too big/deep for "fillers" so I use proper plaster (sometimes ready mixed).

 

On the three houses I've lived in I've never actually found any obvious scrim tape that accounts for the position of the horizontal crack.