
They should be kept an eye on and if necessary, investigated. In light of the above points, these sorts of very small, hairline shrinkage-type cracks in wall, ceilings and plaster are fairly minor and more of an aesthetic issue, but at the same time should not be ignored as they may be a sign of the beginnings of something more serious. In terms of the size of these cracks, a settlement or shrinkage crack is really anything less than 0.5mm in width. This can in turn cause small cracks to appear. If your house is close to a busy road, the rumble of the passing traffic and vibration of the ground can also be the cause of cracks appearing in your home.Īdditionally in newer properties there can be a certain period of “settlement” that the house has to go through whereby effectively everything "settles down". In most cases you wouldn’t have the above scenario, as the bathroom may well be tiled and you may have a UPVC window, but it’s just an example to demonstrate that your house is constantly on the move. You can imagine in this environment, due to huge humidity and temperature fluctuations that the window frame will be exposed to, it will expand and contract significantly on a daily basis causing the plaster touches it to crack. Put this in the context of an exposed wooden window frame in a bathroom that has been plastered right up to it. This is mainly due to humidity, temperature and the way that 100+ different materials in your home react to this, all expanding and contracting at different times and different rates.Īt the other end of the scale there could be bigger problems with foundations where they need underpinning in some way.įor example timber will expand and contract due to moisture levels and temperature. In the majority of cases small, hairline cracks in walls, ceilings and plaster can be a sign of simple expansion and contraction movement within your home. There can be a huge number of different reasons for cracks in the home. Settlement cracks in outer cavity wall of property
