Bricks, Masonry, Asphalt and Concrete - Found a crack in an interior wall at a door frame.

Hey there.

I moved into my townhome in early February. At that time I gave the master bedroom a fresh coat of paint. This past weekend, I noticed a crack in the wall running from just left of center from the bathroom door frame that's about 8" long. So in other words, in the last couple months this crack has appeared. I can't say that it wasn't there when I first painted. I never noticed and I've become much more sensitive to these sorts of things in the last few months if you guys recall my last thread. :rolleyes:

The relative position of this doorway is perpendicular and right next to a common wall with the unit next door. I'm the middle unit in a row of 5. The plaster on the other side of the wall is not cracking (that I can tell) but I'm not sure if it's supposed to in this sort of a situation. Also, this is on the 2nd floor. There really isn't anything on the 1st floor underneath this spot to compare it to, it's open living room.

Should I be concerned about this in regards to the foundation or since it's on the 2nd floor, it might just be the floor sagging? (Which then begs the question should I be looking into the floor to be sure I don't have a problem there....?)

Thanks!

hi
sound like settlement crack
depending your location the frost is comming out or there water under the basement floor and drainnage is a issue.
check with your homeowner association if it a drainnage question

Before I would lose any sleep over it I would patch and paint it and see if it reappears. All homes will settle and have shrinkage of materials [loss of moisture in wood]. Minor cracks are no big deal, just keep an eye on them incase they get worse or multiply.

hi
sound like settlement crack
depending your location the frost is comming out or there water under the basement floor and drainnage is a issue.
check with your homeowner association if it a drainnage question

I figure I'll just paint over it and see if it breaks more. It's a pretty fine crack.

One question though is what would I ask the HOA exactly? Realize this is a townhouse community so the HOA is pretty much just a common area property manager, they have no ownership of the houses.

hi
Some home owner association will check if it related to drainage issue and you might not be the only one with this problem
could be builder issue never know.
Better be safe than sorry

A interior wall crack that is only on one side of the wall likely has nothing to do with settling... it sounds to me like the studs next to the door are bowing (read warping). Probably made the crack on the side that it's bowing away from. Put a long straightedge along the wall to see if this is it. If it's on the doorknob side, it might have cracked as the bathroom door slammed shut.

Problems like that are usually taken care of at no charge in the first year.

Problems like that are usually taken care of at no charge in the first year.

I'm sorry, I should have mentioned the age of the place. The community was built in '90 - '91.