Loud Bang - Vertical Crack Appeared

[cfaice]

Hi all,

Purchased my first house six months ago; a detached property, approaching 20 years old. The house has previously suffered no structural issues, externally no remedial work appears to have taken place, and internally all looks sound.

Going back a couple of weeks ago, while in the property I heard a loud bang. I couldn't figure out what was the cause until a couple of days ago when I then noticed a vertical crack has appeared at the corner of my property, and now I've put two and two together.

The crack extends from the DPC all the way up to the roof line. It goes inline with the mortar and goes straight through several bricks. The wall itself is single storey as it is a side wall for the garage that extends out further than the rest of the house.

I've since checked the internal wall, and the breezeblock mortar on the side wall that connects to the front facing brickwork of the garage has larger crack, around 3mm. There is a lot of debris in this crack, so it looks old.

I did have cavity wall insulation installed two months ago. Lots of heavy drilling going on, is it possible that put some extra stress on the wall and potentially caused this?

I have the family builder poping around over the weekend to take an initial look, and I'll go from there. At the moment I'm just curious.

I've included a picture below showing part of the external crack and can provided more if required.

What's the prognosis?!

Untitled

• cfaice
• 22 May 2013
• 1

 

[^woody^]

Thermal movement

Seasonal heat/drying caused the panel (wall) to contract, stress built up until the wall eventually cracked

 

[Norcon]

Incompatible building products with different rates of expansion.
All the joints should be re-barred at least.

Thats the problem with lego build structures. Just no strength.
That tornado in Oklahoma would rip something like this too pieces.

Edit. Woody got there first. Would agree with that.

 

[Nige F]

Hi all,

The wall itself is single storey as it is a side wall for the garage that extends out further than the rest of the house.

No need to worry then - I looked @ the picture before reading all the text - and thought that was your roofline on a 2 storey house

 

[^woody^]

The crap brickie that bonded it incorrectly, probably didn't help

But yes, I hear many people talk about sitting in the garden in some early spring sunshine and hearing a loud "crack" from the house wall

 

[Porque223]

Foundation soil consistency has changed to give you a lower strength value? Are you over an aquifer?

 

[indus]

The crap brickie that bonded it incorrectly, probably didn't help

But yes, I hear many people talk about sitting in the garden in some early spring sunshine and hearing a loud "crack" from the house wall

Woody, what do you mean by bonded incorrectly? Is it the technique or incorrect mortar mix?

Thanks

 

[^woody^]

Those courses with half bricks, should be full bricks tying across to the stone block. As it is, there is only one tie every six course

 

[fmck]

Fingers crossed we don't hear of you disappearing down a sink hole in your bed one night!

 

[luisdesign]

If as you say the house is only 20 years old then you may have some recourse against the developer for the poor workmanship.