Lots of cracks appearing internally

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Hi there,

I'll apologise now for the length of this but want to give as much detail as possible.

I'm starting to find more and more cracks around my property, some which we've been aware of, but others, that I can't be 100% sure whether they're recent or not but given how many there are and appearing both up and downstairs, I thought I'd jump on here to get your thoughts.

floor-plan.jpg


Work carried out within the last 6 years.

- Whole house has been renovated, including all walls/ceilings being replastered.
- The door leading to the sitting room has been relocated from end of the hall way, to the beginning.
- Master bedroom has had an en-suite bathroom fitted.
- Hatch removed at top of the stairs leading to single bedroom.
- External walls all repointed (last 2 years.)
- Two main UPVC windows replaced (last 2 years.)

Historical work (greater than 6 years)

- Extension added to kitchen (pitched roof.)
- UPVC windows installed all around.

All of the above was carried out by the previous owner.


Cracks I've found so far...

Sitting room (top right of top image):

- Wall between sitting room and kitchen has a crack along where the wall meets the ceiling.
- Wall between sitting room and hallway has small crack appearing that is visible across hallway ceiling.
- Walls beside and above the door between sitting room and hallway have larger, diagonal cracks.
- Crack behind radiator beneath window and where window sill meets the wall.

Kitchen (top left of top image):

- Wall between kitchen and sitting room has small cracks appearing.
- Cracks behind radiator on wall between kitchen and bathroom.

Hallway (bottom right of top image):

- Ceiling between sitting room and staircase wall has a crack across.
- Crack along skirting board and up wall where door has been removed and boarded over.
- Skirting board up stairs has a small crack where meets joining properties wall.

Hallway (middle of bottom image):

- Small cracks appearing around loft hatch.
- Small crack appearing above bedroom door frame.
- Small crack around en-suite bathroom where meets joining properties wall.

Bedroom 1 (bottom left of bottom image):

- Small crack appearing where ceiling meets bedroom wall above door.

Bedroom 2 (top left of bottom image):

- Small cracks appearing where ceiling meets bedroom wall above door.

Bedroom 3 (top right of bottom image):

- Hairline crack across ceiling originating from window.
- Crack in alcove going up wall, across and back down - during a large storm last year, a small leak appeared but never returned.
- Walls beside and above the door between bedroom and en-suite have larger, diagonal cracks.
- Small cracks appearing where ceiling meets bedroom wall above en-suite bathroom door.

En-suite (bottom right of bottom image):

- No cracks, but faint signs of a leak at some point.


Externally, there aren't any tell tail cracks that I can see of however there are a number of vertical cracks in bricks. I'm not sure if these existed before the house was repointed last year as the mortar around the cracked bricks is fine.


I imagine this may be contributory, so thought I'd mention it:

- Wife and daughter seem to shower forever. Extractor fan is set to run for an extra 20 minutes and the bathroom window is left open slightly all year around.
- We regularly wash and dry clothes on the radiators downstairs.
- Window seals are in poor condition (sealant etc has shrank considerably.)
- Asked neighbours and they are not experiencing any issues.
- Searches during purchase identified ground stability due to coal activity and mining report shows advisory for Past Underground Mining Activity but overall result was a Pass.
- Weather hasn't been great the past few months and I recently changed house I heat the house, resulting in the heating being on more often, although with the droughts and poor window seals, you'd not realise (costing a fortune.)


So, based on the above, you can tell I'm at my wits end and I'm now getting paranoid but I want to avoid jumping to conclusions and knee jerk reactions that will result in further issues.

I'd appreciate your thoughts and if you have any questions, or need more information, please ask.
 

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Thanks @tony1851

I had considered this but wasn't 100% sure whether to fill and paint over to find it comes back and then worry about potential insurance claims later on.

Would plaster-shrinkage affect multiple areas of the house in quick succession?
 
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