Hi,
I moved into a house in 2011 which had some underpinning work in 1999. The work included cracks being fixed with helibars, some just filled, and complete re-decoration.
The re-decoration is a poor job: wallpaper is peeling, and paint is flaking. I didn’t care, as I intend to re-do it all anyway. In the hallway, you can see where they did a terrible job with the pollyfilla - no evidence of raking out or even sanding the filler.
But... over the last year or so, the stairs (along the same wall) are getting more creaky, and it looks as if the original cracks in the hall are getting larger (they are still under 2mm). Also, a picture rail on the underpinned wall has moved down slightly where is joins another in a corner. There are no matching cracks on the outside.
Is this just the poor cosmetic repairs to the cracks? (and I can just repair or re-decorate it properly) Or is it possible that there is full-on wall movement again?
What should I be doing? I don’t want to make an insurance claim, as I don’t even know if there is a problem. But there could be, and frankly, it’s likely to be the insurer’s previous tradesmen at fault, isn’t it?
I’d be gutted if I repaired the hallway cracks, paid to have it all re-skimmed, then found it was moving, and it cracked again!
I’d welcome any advice.
I’ve tried to take some pictures of the cracking:
http://richardwalker.letterboxes.org/hall
I moved into a house in 2011 which had some underpinning work in 1999. The work included cracks being fixed with helibars, some just filled, and complete re-decoration.
The re-decoration is a poor job: wallpaper is peeling, and paint is flaking. I didn’t care, as I intend to re-do it all anyway. In the hallway, you can see where they did a terrible job with the pollyfilla - no evidence of raking out or even sanding the filler.
But... over the last year or so, the stairs (along the same wall) are getting more creaky, and it looks as if the original cracks in the hall are getting larger (they are still under 2mm). Also, a picture rail on the underpinned wall has moved down slightly where is joins another in a corner. There are no matching cracks on the outside.
Is this just the poor cosmetic repairs to the cracks? (and I can just repair or re-decorate it properly) Or is it possible that there is full-on wall movement again?
What should I be doing? I don’t want to make an insurance claim, as I don’t even know if there is a problem. But there could be, and frankly, it’s likely to be the insurer’s previous tradesmen at fault, isn’t it?
I’d be gutted if I repaired the hallway cracks, paid to have it all re-skimmed, then found it was moving, and it cracked again!
I’d welcome any advice.
I’ve tried to take some pictures of the cracking:
http://richardwalker.letterboxes.org/hall