Do Cracks in Walls Indicate a Structural Problem?

I got a kind of crack in my ceiling which appeared after a earthquake and in the walls, also, which both are plastered. Is it due to earthquake damaging structure of building?

ok, ranch home facing west, built in 1959. furnace/laundry room, facing west, front/side of home. hot water tank, washer and chimney in room.no clothes dryer. 7 yrs ago, plaster walls cracked,peeled and blistered. chimney contractor installed new flash and came back 3 times to other repairs until nothing else he could do. mind you, inside walls plaster cracked,peeled and blistered. the furnace,chimney, water tank and vents wall and entrance wall are two walls effected. Mostly cracks on wall at ceiling, peels and blisters. few blisters started 4 to 6 inches from ceiling. After chimney repair, walls replastered. fixed until 3 years ago, same problem with same walls. roof repaired,new windows on outside walls. did not repair walls yet and seems walls are getting worse what in the world causes plaster inside walls at ceiling to crack, peel open and blister???? now there is a crack in the bathroom wall at ceiling , which hasnt been used in years. can a pipe in the wall do it? condensation? furnace room hot and cold? mystery water leak? foundation? old age? poorly mixed plaster? we dont want to fix the walls until we know the source. Roof guy said not the roof. Chimney guy says not that. handyman said condensation from pipe in wall,contrater didnt know.HELP!!! a 94 yr old NANA owns and lives in the house and would like it fixed. what should we do? Thank you

I have replaced the roof of my house which was covered with roof sheeting by replacing it with concrete tile and now notice the house is showing a lot cracks especially on the coners inside the house,how can I fix this problem.

Hi, Every summer in one corner of my bedroom a knocking sound occurs in the wall cavity and then wakes me earlier and earlier, eventually coinciding with the sun coming up – so for about 3 months the knocking starts at about 5.30am. I can almost pinpoint it. It carries on during the day with less frequency and then as the house cools it starts up again but not quite as bad. I have to move into my guest room for that period of time. This sound then stops after about 3 months despite temperatures still being in the 30’s (Centigrade that is) – heat soaked? It is a tiled roof and there are no pipes or anything like that in that corner of the bedroom and nowhere near any plumbing. There is movement in that corner in that there has been cracking and then severe cracking, all of which has been fixed (3 times)but cracks have reappeared, not severe though. What could it possibly be??? The house is 6 years old. I bought it when it was 3 years old and immediately had solar panels put on. 18 months later the knocking sound started. So for 2 summers this noise has been going on. I would be so grateful if anyone has ever heard of anything like this. Remember, it is a knocking sound, not creaking, metallic, cracking or clanging. Knocking. PLEASE HELP. Do I have to knock a great big hole in the wall?

Trish

The interior door from garage to kitchen won’t latch when it rains a lot. A very thin crack appears from corner of door frame to ceiling (about 9 inches long)on garage side of wall appears. Once things dry out, it disappears and my door latches fine. I wonder if it could be a serious foundation problem. There are no cracks on the outside of the house walls and none in the foundation.
We live in South Central Texas and it’s either feast or famine when it comes to rain. We had an exceedingly wet spring. Now it is June and things are dry.

Linda

This is a very good article, you definitely want to pay particular attention to the larger cracks. If you suspect any kind of structural damage, I always advise people to contact a structural engineer before getting quotes from foundation repair contractors. The engineer will let you know what needs to be done and that kind of information will save you a lot of money when dealing with contractors.

I have noticed small cracks on my wall numerous on both sides. They are not opened just noticeable when u look closely. I don’t want my wall fall on us. What should I do? Should I be concerned or should I putty it?

Two narrow cracks have appeared on the upper rear external wall, running from my house to the nextdoor neighbour’s house. I had a condensing boiler installed a few years ago which involved knocking a small hole through the back bedroom wall for the pipework to go through. The internal wall wasn’t cemented very well and I’m wondering whether this has caused these vertical cracks to appear on the outside walls.

My unit has 5 cracks from floor to ceiling. Does that means a structural problem..and will the wall collapse due to this issue.

My house was built in 1953 and a small one room addition was built in 2009. We’ve lived here for one year and after a few months of denial; I’m ready to admit we have significant cracks in the wall of our addition. It must’ve been built on a slab (no crawl space). The cracks are mostly on one wall, they are vertical and horizontal. The widest cracks are in line with a window frame. The corner of the room (shown in the picture) is cracked from the floor to ceiling. There is one vertical crack on an adjacent wall.

Sewer line was replaced just under addition prior to move in. Sewer guy claims he only removed dirt outside of the house, so a guy could get down in the hole. From there they supposedly pushed a 3″ pipe through a 4″ pipe and didn’t excavate dirt from under the house. Wonder if the lack of packing dirt outside the house is causing this?

Is my addition falling off? What to do!? Thanks!

I have been in my house for 23 yrs now, think was built in early 50’s. Recently I have seen vertical cracks in my walls seems to be between the drywall panels. Is this just a easy fix by repatching with tape and mud or spackling?

I just had an inspection on my house which was stopped immediately because the inspector found a horizontal crack at the corner of my foundation so the buyers backed out. He said that it wasn’t worth fixing because it will just crumble. How can he say that by just looking at it. I want to know if it is fixable. The house was built in 1995. thank you kathy

Four years ago I purchased an1860’s stone built cottage. It has an extension to one side (added about 40 years ago) which houses the kitchen.
Recently, a crack appeared, at ceiling level, about ten inches from where the extension joins the house. It is now running from the initial crack, right down to the skirting board at a rather jaunty angle (a bit like this /)
It’s certainly not a wide crack, but it’s visible…should I be worried?

new house built only 10 months old. Exterior outside my house near the bedroom window has a long line crack that goes straight down from the corner of the window then makes a line turning left then goes back down. I have the same problem outside in my backroom window . Please advice, My carpet in my bdrm window is wet like if I had spilled something and the baseboard on the top edge looks like its unglued with bits of the paint on top of the baseboard separting from the wall. We just had hurricane Irma when I noticed this issue. Plse advice.

I had an external concrete staircase put in with balustrades. I have noticed that where the railing meets the wall on both sides, at the top of the staircase, there are vertical plaster cracks. How can I fix this?

I just elevated my home due to super storm sandy and onceI was able to get in the house we noticed the bathroom door came off its hinges and that the tub also moved, kitchen counters moved out about 1/4 inch. There are many cracks throughout the house which is over 100 years old but was just totally redone after hurricane Sandy.
My home lifter and contractor say its nothing but I had a roofing and siding contractor in and he suggested i get a structural engineer due to the rather large new crack in the kitchen ceiling which he said was not water damage more stress related. Any advice would be greatly appreciated I just spent alot of money on a foundation and lift to put this house back together.
Thanks

We purchased a 1962 house one level last year. Now we are noticing the middle ceilings that had been taped over are cracking. In the living room guest bedroom and master bedroom. Additionally the wall outside the Family room starting to bulge out. Aside from drainage problems we had last month and is now fixed. Any recommendations? Thanks in advance

My husband and I just bought a historical home built in 1883, it has a beautiful stairwell going to a mid point with a bathroom then right up 5 more stairs to upstairs bedrooms. I noticed a crack in the wall extending from upstairs guest room running horizontally along stair well. The previous owners took down all of the original wallpaper and the walls are made from extremely hard spackle. This crack bulges out and I think it is just the spackle. We had the home inspected before we bought it for any structural issues and they did not find any. Any advise on fixing this crack??

I need to have my walls inspected because of cracks. Could it be causing
structural problems.

Have removed my skirting boards and behind them there full of holes there’s no damp one hole is.5inches wide 7 inches deep was told to just put skirting on nothing can be done .

I removed my skirting boards and discovered hole’s all the way around room .Walls are dry no damp have been told nothing can be done just put skirting on again what would cause this

The house was built in 1961 we have only been in house for since 1991. We had our roof replaced last year. I am not seeing deep cracks bedroom left side of house. Bathroom door and bedroom door not shutting good. Cracks also in bathroom Worried. Could these be cracks that use to be in house before me fixed and now coming back out. Can u advise. Thank you

my walls especially at windows side have small cracks and also my all of my doors are not closing,,im not sure because the doors were not dry when i install them but for almost two weeks later they seems to be small and leave some gap and not closing once they become dry .Is possible this can be structural problem?

We bought a 40 year old house that did not eaves troughs. We had eavestroughs installed by a professional two years ago. I feel that because the house did not have these in place that water could have caused damage to the foundation because the concrete foundation in my basement has pulled away slightly and I noticed that it has even sunk! I feel this is causing new cracks in the walls, and moticed that my brand new kitchen countertop has dropped, detaching from the backsplash by half a millimeter. I noticed a crack on the outside of the foundation this year too. Would all that water over 40 years cause major damage? I’m wondering if the foundation will have to be dug up around and a barrier applied. Thank you for any reply.

We rent a home built in 1950, so the bathroom roof fell off, two months later a big crack on the living room, and different rooms, and a month ago the garage was flooded due to two big hole in the backside, we still live in the home,we hear so many cracking sounds in the roof in different spots, we have section 8,so we lost the track,we just being totally ignored,we were left with no help and no action is taken,the home was sold recently,we just being left in the dark for no great reason.

Just over a year ago I had a new extension put onto the back of the house,
The builder had to use acros to prop up the brick and block before taking the bottom half of the house out.
To cut a long story short I’ve now got 3/5mm cracks appeared in my bathroom and bedroom ,the builder says that he will replaster the cracks but we are over a year down the road and we have tiles falling of in the bathroom and the wallpaper is tearing in the bedroom.

Hi
I got cracks on only on first floor walls and the ground floor is fully furnished.
On the site which was not finsihed and the walls were plastered however the ceilings were not plastered and it was left for about to 2 year . Got a call from client. I think it happened due yo extraction of ceiling . And advises

I have purchased a built up house, built in 2018. Now, there are some cracks in 57 feet wall of three rooms and a bathroom. Cracks are below the roof horizontal and between wall and column. This problem is occurring when six months ago my neighbor built his house. Wall of my house is common with neighbor i.e. roof of both is on one wall shared 4.5 inches each. How to remove the cracks and repaired. Please suggest.

My wall has some cracks on it and I’m worried that it’ll suddenly collapse. 🙁 So far the crack on my wall is NOT wider in gap nor the one side of the wall is higher than the other because as you’ve mentioned this could be a structural problem. Maybe the cracks in my walls are just benign, but I’m just the kind of gal that needs peace of mind. I just have to hire the right drywall repair service that can fix this. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!