Crack in a garage wall.

[Bill]

Hi, I have a small crack, 1-2mm wide, running through the concrete block and render wall of my 10 year old garage from floor to roof. It is about a blocks width in from one corner, the garage is built on a substantial concrete base, which appears to be intact, about 12m X 4m. I first noticed it about a year ago and it doesn't appear to have increased in width over that time. I can only think at the moment that the end wall has moved a fraction away from the side wall, no idea why though.

To check for movement I am thinking of fixing a couple of glass microscope slides across the crack to see if they fail, I seem to recall that this is a standard check.

Has any one tried this or got a better idea? I was thinking of using epoxy resin to fix the slides, good / bad idea??

My other thought was to get Sarah Beeny in to advise, but the thought of her checking out my crack was too much to bear.

[John Williamson]

A couple of dabs of mortar is the old fashioned way. If it falls off after a day or so, you've either not got a good bond in the first place, or it's moving fast enough to worry about. You can also get 2 part movement detectors that you stick across the crack which will tell you how much the wall is moving.

[dennis]

You could DIY with

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[NT]

Just fill the crack, if it re-moves you'll get a new crack, and you'll be able to see how far its moving in what direction.

NT

[Dave Liquorice]

How do you get direction? All that filled crack opening will tell you is how far the two sides have moved relative to each other. One side of the fill failing only says that fill/wall bond on that side of the crack was weaker than the fill/wall bond on the other.

I guess it might reopen from one end in which case you know there is more movement at that end but not much more.

[NT]

Masonry cracks are always ragged edged, just look close up and its fairly obvious which dircetion the 2 bits of masonry have gone in relative to each other

NT