Crack appeared above bedroom doorways.

[fizzbomb271]

Hi all,

I appear to have a minor crack which has appeared above my bedroom doorway onto landing. The wall is of brick construction and crack is approx 12" diagonally from top corner of doorframe to ceiling height, but is obvious in both the bedroom and landing sides of wall. It must only be 1-2 mm wide as appears as only a minor split in the wallpaper. Standing from inside the bedroom, the doorframe appears to have sunk slightly at the same side as the crack, as the gap around the door is not equal all the way round.

This bedroom doorway is directly below my loft hatch and in last 6 - 9 months I have had a considerable amount of family belongings stored and moved to/from the loft area.

There are also slight bellyings in the plasterboard ceilings in all rooms, but I have been told by neighbours that they also have this due to the age of the ceilings (approx 70yrs) and it is just de-lamination?!

I am due to have my loft area fully floored and lined shortly and only noticed the crack in the wall area last night when I was coming down the loft ladder!

Any ideas guys? Wanted to get a better idea of what might be happening with it, as concerned I might have the wool pulled over my eyes by a builder, being a single mum with no "building savvy" male family to ask the right questions?!

Hope you can advise me further, cheers.

Angela.

 

[Shytalkz]

Check that where the wall has dropped it is not over a downstairs wall. If, as I suspect, it isn't, then the wall has been built off the timber joists and boarding at first floor level, which has gradually deflected over the years.

If you've stashed a noticeable weight of things on the ceiling joists over this are and these sit on the walls, then this in turn could lead to increased deflection of the floor level supports and the cracking you've recently noted.

With regard to the ceilings, if the timbers aren't similary dished as the ceiling, then this would suggest that the fixings have loosened. Not what I would call delamination, but that's what he means, I would guess.

 

[fizzbomb271]

Many thanks Shytalkz,

Spot on, the doorways upstairs are not directly above the main walls/doorways on the floor below. Hoping it was poss just all the extra boxes which were moved in/out of storage there recently which has caused settlement.

Also, apparently the ceilings were nailed in place in the 40's when houses were built and neighbour had problem with these loosening, hence ceilings bellying, so fingers crossed nothing more than that.

Cheers again for your swift reply, been internet-less for last few weeks or would have responded sooner.

Best regards,

Angela