Patching and Plastering - cracks in interior wall
Doityourself.com community forum was created to provide answers to all questions related to home improvement and home repair. Doityourself community can help you find information about how-to topics on small fixes to large remodeling projects. With comprehensive how-to content and expertly moderated community forums DoItYourself.com makes it easy to tackle even the most complex home improvement projects.View Full Version : cracks in interior wall
liquidsnake
04-09-06, 03:17 PM
I have a 10 year old house (owned it for 2 years) located in an area with cold winters and hot dry summers. One of the windows on the second storey (the only one in a section of the house which is supported by a pillar at the front entrance to the house on the bottom level) has a diagonal crack stretching from each of the four corners to the ceiling or floor. These cracks are cyclical in that they open up during freezing weather and close up again as it warms up. We have patched them, but of course they reappear. I notice that the concrete around the pillar itself has cracked and flaked somewhat so I am thinking the cracks have something to do with the footing and/or the clay soil. I think the problem is compounded by the fact that the house shakes every time a logging truck goes over a cattle guard on the road at the back of the house. Any ideas on the best course of action for this?
DaVeBoy
04-09-06, 03:49 PM
Yes. Move! Ha, ha, ha. I couldn't resist. Just kidding.
To be frank, I seriously doubt much can be done. I have a similar situation with seasonal cracks in drywal coming off the bottom corners of a window. I have filled them when they open. Then when they close back up it creates a bulge as my filler tries to be squirted out.
If you try to tape it and you have this problem, there is a good chance it will crack nearby. You could try it once, I suppose, and see what happens. If you did, and THAT cracked...I think I would give up before you started causing new cracks and having to tape and mud all over the place.
If it was me, I think I would just quickly spackle in the crack and touch up the paint, and live with it.
Trying to actually fix the root cause I am afraid may be very pricey and may be near impossible, depending on you situation anyway.
To be frank, I seriously doubt much can be done. I have a similar situation with seasonal cracks in drywal coming off the bottom corners of a window. I have filled them when they open. Then when they close back up it creates a bulge as my filler tries to be squirted out.
If you try to tape it and you have this problem, there is a good chance it will crack nearby. You could try it once, I suppose, and see what happens. If you did, and THAT cracked...I think I would give up before you started causing new cracks and having to tape and mud all over the place.
If it was me, I think I would just quickly spackle in the crack and touch up the paint, and live with it.
Trying to actually fix the root cause I am afraid may be very pricey and may be near impossible, depending on you situation anyway.
liquidsnake
04-23-06, 09:23 PM
Thanks for your advice. As I mentioned, we have patched and painted the cracks once but they reappeared. We just left them alone the second time and they receded on their own. It seems to be a seasonal problem. To get at the root of this do you think I should consult a structural engineer? I am wondering if the problem is due to an improper footing and freezing soil somehow since the cracks appear when it gets very cold and recede when it warms up.
DaVeBoy
04-24-06, 05:36 PM
If it is always doing the same thing year after year...I'd just live with it. You probably will become the master of the 2-minute patch job. :) )
To try to permamently fix such a thing may be darn near impossible and/or awfully pricey. Once people start showing up with clipboards in hand, then you know you are in for something.
But if it IS progressively showing signs of more movement...getting way worse...then I WOULD probably do something.
Could you venture a guess as to what might be causing this? Without me seing the problem in relation to the layout of the whole house, I can't really help you too much.
But I will say these things: If this window is along an outside wall where the outside gets shoveled of snow and nearby areas don't and are snow covered, this causes a disimilar frost heave pattern. And frost can go very deep under where it is always shoveled.
Another structural problem is something called "truss lift" Back in the 70's-80's when manufactured trusses started really to be used instead of on the site rafter/joist construction, a phenomonen occured that nobody thought of: When insulation was blown into the attic deeper than the joists, this would cause the joists to stay warmer than the rafters which would shrink in the cold. And because trusses are constructed as a very solid gang-nailed unit, they are not designed to have the top half shrink with the bottom part staying put. Something had to give. So what started to occur is that the joist started bowing upward in the middle...lifting off the interior walls of the house! It would tear the sheetrock tape where the wall and ceiling met at the cross walls, and sometimes raise up the ceiling up to 1/2 inch! Then in the spring, the truss and ceiling would come back down. To cure this, builders were informed not to screw the sheetrock next to the walls so that the truss could lift, but not the ceiling with it. (Today..I'm not sure what gains have been made because I have been sort of out of touch.)
To try to permamently fix such a thing may be darn near impossible and/or awfully pricey. Once people start showing up with clipboards in hand, then you know you are in for something.
But if it IS progressively showing signs of more movement...getting way worse...then I WOULD probably do something.
Could you venture a guess as to what might be causing this? Without me seing the problem in relation to the layout of the whole house, I can't really help you too much.
But I will say these things: If this window is along an outside wall where the outside gets shoveled of snow and nearby areas don't and are snow covered, this causes a disimilar frost heave pattern. And frost can go very deep under where it is always shoveled.
Another structural problem is something called "truss lift" Back in the 70's-80's when manufactured trusses started really to be used instead of on the site rafter/joist construction, a phenomonen occured that nobody thought of: When insulation was blown into the attic deeper than the joists, this would cause the joists to stay warmer than the rafters which would shrink in the cold. And because trusses are constructed as a very solid gang-nailed unit, they are not designed to have the top half shrink with the bottom part staying put. Something had to give. So what started to occur is that the joist started bowing upward in the middle...lifting off the interior walls of the house! It would tear the sheetrock tape where the wall and ceiling met at the cross walls, and sometimes raise up the ceiling up to 1/2 inch! Then in the spring, the truss and ceiling would come back down. To cure this, builders were informed not to screw the sheetrock next to the walls so that the truss could lift, but not the ceiling with it. (Today..I'm not sure what gains have been made because I have been sort of out of touch.)