Hairline Cracks appearing all over house

[Leeroy2290]

Hi All,

I'm just looking for a bit of advice on these cracks. We bought the property around 6 years ago, it is a late 30's - early 40s built property.

We have started seeing hairline cracks appearing all over the house most of which are above above or below windows or door frames.

We have timber doors and windows at the front and side and uPVC at the rear and the cracks appear to be more around the timber frames.

There have always been some hairline cracks here and there which is to be expected given the age of the property but a lot are definitely new.

The majority do seem to have appeared since the cold snap and the central heating has been on a lot more.


Just to note all of the cracks do appear to be hairline. All are <1mm wide. Since living here we have noticed that the previous owners certainly partook in some dodgy DIY over the years.


Most of the walls appear to be plastered/Artexed direct to internal brick work which looks like a gypsum surface skim over possibly lime original plaster? I've added a couple of photos for context.

Just to note there is no cracks in external brickworks just very old frost damaged pointing that needs redoing.

 

[Notch7]

That’s just plaster cracking

thermal expansion / contraction is the cause on masonry

expansion / contraction due to moisture content change on timber frame

All perfectly normal.


You should see the cracks on new contstruction, builders use timber supplied by merchants who keep it outside in the rain. And then there’s those garbage thermalite blocks that crack.

 

[Leeroy2290]

Thank you for the reply its quite reassuring to hear. Think anxiety has got the better of me since I've been going around the house noting all the new cracks driving my partner insane.

I did think it was quite coincidental after we've had an extremely dry summer followed by weeks of torrential rain and finally the last week or so it's gone below zero. Then all of a sudden a lot of cracks start appearing .

As I say most are so fine they won't even show on my camera unless I get extremely close.