Cracks on walls

Hay everyone. First off would like to say that I live in a very old house. To say that it has issues is an understatement.
What I have going on is these cracks or should I say splits in the sheet rock were the two half's come together except for one in my kitchen that is going kinda diagonal. This is happening in several rooms.
My question is has anybody ever had this to happen to them and what could be causing it and lastly what did you do to fix it?

Thanks for any input.

TheShadow said:

Hay everyone. First off would like to say that I live in a very old house. To say that it has issues is an understatement.
What I have going on is these cracks or should I say splits in the sheet rock were the two half's come together except for one in my kitchen that is going kinda diagonal. This is happening in several rooms.
My question is has anybody ever had this to happen to them and what could be causing it and lastly what did you do to fix it?

Thanks for any input.

Click to expand...

sounds like a foundation issue

Yep, your house is settling unevenly causing shear stress in the walls. Drywall isn't flexable so something has to give. Find the cause of the uneven settling before you attempt to fix the drywall.

First if the house is very old then more than likely it is plaster. If it has been remodeled then it could be that either no tape was used between the joints or too thin a layer of drywall compound under the tape. If you can cut into the crack a little you should be able to tell.

sinclair is pretty much on target. Foundation and structural would be the first checks.

The vertical splits are minor and usually a minor fix can be made to both the sheetrock and the foundation. Patching the sheetrock will NOT help as they will just come back over time so the foundation repair is the most important.

Now for the bad news......... and you ain't gunna like this either.

The diagonal tear is a sign of a serious foundation and structural problem and will probably be an expensive fix. It takes a lot of pressure to rip sheetrock on a diagonal.

The last time I saw one like that was 10 years ago or so on a slab house. When we rolled the carpet back there was a 4-6 inch crack (separation) and a 5-6 inch sag in the slab.

Long story short, in the end the house was condemned and torn down. It was cheaper to rebuild than repair.

I'm not saying that's the case with your house BUT being an older house it's settling badly right now and you need to find out why.

I'd contact a good structural engineer to take a look.

Good luck.

Anything that gets done around here I have to do it. The house is over 120 years old and I have found some plaster in some of the rooms. Also I have found some cracks at the under pending but I though at first it may have been due to the fact that we don't have gutters. To make things worse, me and the wife are both out of work.

Your house is probably on piers rather than a solid foundation. There are companies out there that jack up houses and add layers to the piers to level them. My mother lives in a 100 year old farm house that has a bit of personality too. She had the same issues when the old beadboard walls were covered over with sheetrock. Had it leveled and had the sheetrock repaired and all is well.

Older houses have a lot of foundation issues.

I've seen houses of that vintage sitting on the ground. (The wood floor joists just sit on the ground) I've seen them sitting on rocks for piers, bricks for piers, old cinder blocks, stumps, bedrock, about everything you can imagine.

Fixing one like that isn't cheap nor easy.

If you are lucky the wood in the joists and seal plates is still good. If not the house likely won't survive the repair.

In those days they didn't put the foundation on a footer, they just sit on the ground. To solve the problem you just about have to dig it out, pour footers and re level it back on a foundation. It requires lifting the whole house most of the time and is not a self done job. You've got to have heavy jacks, lots of cribbing, and the knowledge to do it without getting yourself killed.

Back then they were using lumber that you can't buy today and you could get away with a lot of things you just can't do today. Still I doubt they intended the house to last 120 years. They probably didn't think much past 25 or 30 years.

When you start talking about tearing the sheetrock you have some serious separation some where. It's possible that the foundation has settled such that walls are bowed or have come loose from the rafters holding them together. If that's happened, there's no fixing it without spending 40 times what it's worth.

Skipper

control the water off the roof if possible then shore up the foundation, then i would attack the plaster crack issues.

Well i got under the house this morning and here is what I found. There is an old root cellar directly under where the diagonal cracks are and its is flooded with about two inches of water and that's the first that I have ever seen it like this. The house sits on stacked field rocks and two of them (pillars) at either side of the crack are glittering with water and the ground around it is wet. This could be happening due to fact that there is a place right at the house outside that doesn't run off water like it should, a sink area and is that way directly opposite on the other side of the house as well. Looks like I've got to figure out a way to redirect it away from that side. Maybe a french drain?
I also noticed that about where that crack is in relation to under the house is where I had put a floor jack between the pillars. I did this because at the time (about 8 years ago ) iI thought it would take some of the stress off of the pillars. I maybe now in retrospect I might have cranked up on the floor jack a little too much thus causing the separation inside?
any of you fellows have any ideas about getting the water away from the house?

You either have to fill up against the foundation or cut the yard down to get proper drainage away from the foundation.
Minimum clearances from dirt to any wood is 8".
You could dig the dirt up from around the foundation and waterproof up to the top of the dirt line.Water has to flow into the crawl space somewhere.
Most likely you have pillars that were made from rock with dirt/lime mortar.
I would get all the water you can out from under the crawl space and put fans to get it as dry as quick as possible.
Also after that much water expect some more settling of the foundation.
Make sure you are protected from the TERMITES as a wet crawl space is like a magnet in an old house.
I also have a house that was built in 1870 and I have had that same issue that you are having.

With all this rain ,Im seeing more and more foundation/flooding problems. About 85% are caused by poorly maintained gutters!