Floor deflection & cracks in the walls

May 21, 2008 2 Replies
W

Hi



I hope this is the right group to send this to...



About a year ago we had an insurance company appointed surveyor to come and have a look at various cracks in the ceiling/internal walls in our victorian terrace (ground floor flat). I'm pretty sure the cracks have always been there (I've been here for 9 years) but they were becoming more noticeable, especially after a TV programme that was banging on about subsidence! Anyway, during the visit he said he was pretty sure it wasn't subsidence and later he sent a letter stating that the cracks were most likely due to "deflection of the floor structure". I'm not 100% sure what this means but the letter also stated that this was considered as wear & tear, so I wasn't overly worried.



The visit was about a year ago and since then the cracks have definitely got longer. Should I be running for the hills or just fill the cracks and not worry about it - i.e. is there likely anything that can be done to fix this deflection issue?



Thanks Warren


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M

Ceiling and wall cracks are 2 completely different animals. Victorian timber frame ceilings tend to deflect far more than modern designs, and it results in cracking sometimes. Fill the cracks, don't worry.

Wall cracks are another matter. Old houses do tend to move a bit, causing cracks in the walls. If these are small, just fill the cracks on the inside and use lime mortar for exterior mortar cracks. Its hard to draw a line as to when it becomes a problem, but bear in mind that new and old houses behave very differently in this area, and oddly there are many surveyors about that try to treat old buildings like modern ones, worrying about slight movement and specifying quite inappropriate remedies for what are usually simply normal maintenance requirements.

Expertise:

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