Cracking in wall of old house.

[David071]

Hi everybody,

My wife and I have a 1940's brick home with limestone foundations and metal roof. Apart from some cracking in one wall of a room of the house - the house is generally in good condition.

We have post bearers at the rear of the house below a verandah. We are presuming that one of the bearers has slipped or is slipping slightly and has caused some cracking on the wall. The limestone

foundations look all fine at the front of the house.

We are just wondering if there are folk out there that can provide us with some information on getting some checks on the bearers and if there is any good tradesman in Perth anybody can recommend.

Thanks everybody.

[gordon_s1942]

Even the best built houses settle over time and the weather conditions over the years play apart in that too.
My Timber framed house built post WW1 sits on bricks placed at right angles to the foundations barely 6 inches below the natural surface.
The very front of the house supporting a veranda has 'slipped' away some 100 milliliters partly due to being heavy clay and on a slight slope away from the house.
Its mud when it rains and like concrete when its dry.
The only way to fix this is to completely demolish the section, dig proper foundations that will both anchor and support the section.

Read up as much as you can on that type of structure and certainly get more than one professional opinion on what needs doing as the last thing you want to do is to cause more problems trying to fix any you have now.

Check your local area too for any similar houses built that way and see how they are today.

[Tiny]

You lucky bastard, only one wall cracking, mine has several.

No big deal as Gordon has said, settling occurs no matter how good your foundations are over time.

If you are really worried get professional advice. If the advice is to spend lots of money then get a second opinion before proceeding.

The best advice you can get is from a builder that is also a friend, if you don't have one then maybe one of your friends or family do?

[Godzilla]

Maybe get under and check the posts, my father replaced all his posts one at a time with concrete ones as the timber ones tend to rot over time.

Also with rain the ground swells up and with dry weather the ground shrinks, some houses have issues with water getting underneath which rots the posts, sometimes setting up a trench with Aggy pipe and crushed rock around the outside can dry out and keep future water out from under the house.

[Dishtrackted]

Ive repaired a wall with massive cracks in the past durring droughts,that after a few massive drought breaking rains rejoined and spat out the filling only to need painting again.

[ol' boy]

Post a picture of the cracks.
There are many different types of cracking.

[gordon_s1942]

I totally missed and misread the part about the posts at the rear of the house and like Godzilla, I think they are the problem.

You need to check them out to see how sound they are and how well they are 'Footed' because by now after 70 years, they may well becoming useless and may eventually allow the whole wall to sag which could result in the whole thing coming down.

I do think you need to investigate it sooner than later.

[Godzilla]

Ive repaired a wall with massive cracks in the past durring droughts,that after a few massive drought breaking rains rejoined and spat out the filling only to need painting again.

Thats were the aggy pipe works, it becomes a barrier between water and the house.

I remember when i helped my father set up this system around his house, posts were rotting, under the house was a bog hole when it rained.

First we got rid of the water problem with the aggy pipe, crushed rock and builders plastic around the house in a deep trench about 1m from the walls.

Within 2 years under the house dried up to rock hard dry soil, i remember having to dig to replace the rotting timer posts, the pick use to bounce off the hard ground, it was that dry.

Then we resumped each timber post with concrete ones, one at a time.

House never flooded underneath and remained a dry dust bowl for over 20 years now, no cracking ever again, no more rotting posts.

[gordon_s1942]

Thats were the aggy pipe works, it becomes a barrier between water and the house.

I remember when i helped my father set up this system around his house, posts were rotting, under the house was a bog hole when it rained.

First we got rid of the water problem with the aggy pipe, crushed rock and builders plastic around the house in a deep trench about 1m from the walls.

Within 2 years under the house dried up to rock hard dry soil, i remember having to dig to replace the rotting timer posts, the pick use to bounce off the hard ground, it was that dry.

Then we resumped each timber post with concrete ones, one at a time.

House never flooded underneath and remained a dry dust bowl for over 20 years now, no cracking ever again, no more rotting posts.

I have seen this technique used on those US Home Reno shows particularly where the frost line goes a metre or more deep.

As most houses in the upper area of the US have basements, seepage can be a major issue so to prevent it, they coat the outside wall with some kind of sealant (like on a shower wall) place a material barrier over that, a perforated Aggy pipe near the bottom of the trench then backfull with suitable gravel to allow drainage.
I dont care how well timber is supposedly treated, I dont like it in the ground except on a fence post, certainly NOT as a pier under a house unless its on an ant/damp proof pad