Ceiling cracks, spreading rapidly...

[hsabbers]

Hi all,

We moved into our current house four months ago. At that time, I had the opportunity to get into the house (it was vacated early by tenants) and I painted most of walls and one ceiling in an upstairs bedroom. I ran out of time to do the rest of the ceilings but they were basically in good order anyway (and I was only really painting to freshen everything up, 'cos it's all white).

Now, long, hairline cracks have appeared in straight lines on the celings in most of the upstairs bedrooms, including the newly-painted ceiling, and also in the bathroom. These have spread pretty quickly -- I've been watching them lengthen over the past couple of weeks, I reckon. There's also a hairline crack appeared in the kitchen, downstairs. Remember, most of these cracks hve appeared in what I believe to be two-year-old paintwork.

Now, I've read plenty of other threads here about cracks running along the line of plasterboard joins and, having been into the attic, this would appear to be the case here.

However, I have a mild concern about structural issues because, around two years before we bought this place, a downstairs wall was removed and an RSJ put in its place. Our surveyor noted no major cracks or structural issues, and all these cracks are defintely new.

So... while these cracks could be due to humidity/central heating/different usage patterns by us, I'm just after other people's thoughts I guess. I'm pretty sure that the ceilngs were last painted two years ago, when the works were done. So why would the cracks appear only this winter? The house was occupied last winter, so if heat/humidity is a possible cause, would/should cracks not have appeared last year? As I said, I'm pretty certain they haven't been repainted since the work was done.

Any comments greatly appreciated.

Harry.

 

[roughcaster]

How old is the house? Are the ceilings plastered or just taped? Sometimes a tape can come loose from the joint in the plasterboard,and what looks like a crack is a loose edge of the tape. See if you can put the point of a knife underneath the "crack".If you can, then that is what has happened. Another way is to rub the back of your fingernails along the crack and see if it sounds hollow underneath. The only way with loose tapes is to take them off and re-tape.Even a "skimmed" over p/board ceiling can crack along the joins. If cracks suddenly started to appear in an old lath and plaster ceiling,then that would be a different story,but with a plasterboard ceiling,it's either loose tapes,or a bit movement on the joists/sheets. I can't comment on the installation of the RSJ downstairs,but if your surveyor noted no major cracks or structural issues,then that sounds ok. Plasterboard is always subject to movement,humidity, as you said in your post,and i'm sure this has got something to do with it.

Roughcaster.

 

[joe-90]

It's just the central heating. Structural problems won't manifest as hairline cracks and would be localised to one area. Maybe the joints weren't taped?
Either way, it's not a big problem - just a niggle.

 

[hsabbers]

Thanks for both these responses. Obviously whenever you move into a new place you worry about odd cracks, noises and so forth. I guess I've just never seen such cracks appear with such rapidity, but then it does seem to tally with the colder whether and our use of the heating (and also my regular trips up into the loft to reset the slightly-flaky boiler, which is up there).

The fact that one such crack runs the entirety of the upstairs ceiling, through one bedroom, to the hallway to the opposite bedroom was concerning me. Still does a bit, I guess. But I also know that, sensibly, everything I anyway know and have determined about the position of the boards above tells me it *is* just movement in the boards/joists.

Still, if I don't post again in the next few weeks you'll know we all died in a house collapse.

Thanks,

Harry.

 

[RigidRaider]

Do you have kids? Our son thundering around has wrecked the newly-skimmed ceilings downstairs. Even the cornices are looking shaky. I wish our plasterer had taped all the cracks over the joins in the plasterboard but maybe they weren't obvious amongst the awful artex effect he was covering over!

 

[bbmaddy]

One thing is pretty much evident though! The central heating is the main culprit which causes these cracks in the ceilings as has happened in my house too. We do live in a place where the weather mostly remains hot and humid. Our house was last renovated/painted more than 10 years ago and the cracks started appearing more than 4/5 years. They have remained as they were and did not expand. If it had to do with construction errors then it would have become an issue by now. But nevertheless whats the way to repair them?

 

[metallicat87]

I know this is a very old post but i found it on google. I just wondered if you ever found out the cause of the cracks harry. im in almost the exact same problem. i bought my first house and its 20 years old and its been vacant for 18 months. iv painted most of the walls and ceiling, but its now been 2 months and a hairline crack has appeared in my bedroom running the length of the room parallel with the back wall of the house about 6 foot in. it then runs in the hall the same way. and down stairs the the kitchen( directly below the bedroom and hall) one runs at 90 degrease to the up stairs. would this cause concern or just be down to the house settling.

Thanks for any ideas

 

[Richard C]

Rather than drag up a 4 year old thread, why not search "cracks in plasterboard" (or similar) on this forum & save everyone the trouble of repeating it all;
//search.diynot.com/forum_sear...tbytime=0&author=&search=Search+Forum&stype=0
By all means come back with specific questions.

 

[metallicat87]

Because richard, harry has had almost the exact same circumstance as me and i was.hoping he may shine a light for me ok?

 

[Richard C]

Because richard, harry has had almost the exact same circumstance as me and i was.hoping he may shine a light for me ok?

There is nothing unusual or different about harry’s problem & every possible combination of cause & cure is there to be found in the archive posts, many answered by either myself or the other dedicated spreads on this forum; but he’s still around after 4 years so maybe he will answer your post.

At least take the trouble to have a look & help yourself &, as I said, come back with questions if your not sure – IS THAT OK!

 

[hsabbers]

I know this is a very old post but i found it on google. I just wondered if you ever found out the cause of the cracks harry. im in almost the exact same problem.

Hi, yes... it turned out to be exactly what other people here suggested -- the joins of plasterboard. Use of the central heating causes the panels to bow and bend and the cracks appeared. We continued living there for 3 or so more years without the house falling down and when we sold it, the buyer got his own structural survey which revealed nothing untoward. So yeah, I'd say nothing to worry about -- assuming your problem is indeed the same as ours.

Harry.

 

[metallicat87]

Thanks loads harry. you have put my mind at ease. im glad everything turnrd out for u