Cracks in a traditional ceiling

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's not a guess that my house moves regularly. And ceilings deflect when people walk on the floor above. And so on.

Perhaps you never decorate.

[tabbypurr]

a lot of houses that move do so irregularly. I don't suppose you've collected movement data.

yes, though that doesn't usually break the ceiling.

perhaps logic ain't your thing.

NT

[NY]

I was looking round a house that I was considering buying. It was a two-storey house and the loft had been converted into a fourth bedroom. All the ceilings of the first-floor rooms had big cracks across them - in one case it spread several feet either side of a ceiling rose light fitting. The floor of the new lost room felt a bit springy and one part of it creaked.

I have a feeling they had the conversion done on the cheap and didn't get the loft rafters upgraded/strengthened when it was converted from loft (occasional human weight, and suitcases/cardboard boxes) to bedroom (point sources for bed legs, continuous walking over the surface).

We turned the house down on the grounds that big cracks in the bedroom ceilings did not look good.

You'd think at the very least when they put the house on the market they'd have had the ceilings re-skimmed to hide such obvious cracks.

[tabbypurr]

you might have got a good deal and fixed it, profiting many thousands. Most people's blacklist houses are my whitelist.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

No - I'd leave that for pedants like you. I tend to just give advice on here I know has worked for me. It once was a DIY group, where people shared tips on doing things.

Didn't realise you knew my house so well.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Perhaps you were lucky they'd not just bodged it for sale?

My house had originally lath and plaster. Replaced by plasterboard after, I was told, war damage. As all the cornices had gone too. All wood floors deflect to some extent, and depending on the load on them. Whether you get cracks or not depends on many things.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Is that why you post duff gen about not using grommets and earth sleeving here?

[tabbypurr]

I have done it, and not for pedantry. Houses do move irregularly. That's why yours no longer cracking does not prove the flexible filler flexes enough to stop cracks. It's just basic reasoning.

that's what it was until you claimed one sample point was proof.

I haven't claimed to. Give it a rest.

NT

[tabbypurr]

if it's duff please show us the deaths caused by omission of those 2 items.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Interesting. The only reason in your mind to do anything is to prevent death.

[tabbypurr]