Almost two years ago we moved into this house. The original part of the house is a colonial built in 1939, 2 story w/ basement. In the late 50's / early 60's a large den / kitchen expansion was built onto the house with basemenet adjoining the orig basemenet. 5-7 years ago a
2nd floor was put atop the den / kitchen expansion (I've got the permit records for that but not the orig expansion).In the past few weeks I noticed that along the ceiling / wall corner in the bahtroom that is part of the most recent, 2nd floor expansion a series of cracks up in the corner running around a good part of the bathroom (3 walls - drywall). I went looking and found that there is a crack between the plaster wall and moulding going down the main staircase that was part of the original house - easily determined as it has cracked part of the paint that was just applied 1.5 years ago. The bathroom and kitchen under it are part of an overhang that extends off the newish den and are supported by the orig house at one end and a series of 2x2's that sit on a brick retaining wall at the other side - not sure if the wall is reinforced underneath. Felt should eventually augment support at that end w/ footing and a series of new 2x2's not on the wall itself.
The original part of the house is brick 1st floor, masonite siding 2nd floor (on the side of the house the basement is exposed and that wall is brick so there's 2 floors of brick on one side). I notice no stairstepping in any of the brick, nor patches from earlier stepping.
The time we moved in saw more rain in the area than had been present in nearly 100 years. There are two under-house drainage pipes that run into a gutter and they drained for months after we moved in. They've been rather dry for a year aside from recent bit of activity due to recent frequent precipitation, but nothign like before. I have sump pump in the finished basement room (part of 2nd expansion) and it hadn't kicked in for a year but did run a few days on and off a 3-4 weeks ago.
So...not sure what is causing this. I guess my real question is - who would I get in to determine what is going on here? A structural engineer?
Thanks for any help.
bp