Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Dec 05, 2012 7:26 pm Hi everyone, I've had a crack in my garage wall for years, but over the last couple years, I would say the crack in the wall has become larger. I'm just wondering whether its worth getting this fixed or not? It's a single brick wall, and the crack is widest at the top and then progressively diminshes as it runs down. The crack does not go all the way down to the footing. I was thinking that this may be related to expansion as the wall is quite long and does not have those gap fillers running down them as one sees in the new houses being built. Any opinions on whether this needs to be fixed? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: How serious is this crack in my brick wall 2Dec 05, 2012 7:29 pm So theres no expansion gaps? How long is this wall? This would be covered under the building warranty i imagine if its a new house. Building with Jandson Homes - Eclipse 18. http://adgnetworks.blogspot.com/ Re: How serious is this crack in my brick wall 4Dec 06, 2012 6:22 am Maybe get a few "experts" to look at it - ie no charge just quote. We had a crack once and it was said to be "harmless" but it didn't look nice. Just filled. How serious is this crack in my brick wall 5Dec 06, 2012 6:52 am We had a local engineer come out to do a formal inspection of some cracks at our last place. Short answer is that they aren't a significant problem unless you can stick your finger in them. Long answer is that there's a lot of localized variables to consider such as whether you are sitting on sand, clay etc, and whether drainage is an issue. I think we paid about $250 for a site inspection and written report. When we were selling the place a buyer baulked at the cracks and we were able to provide the engineers report stating that it was all quite ok. They went through with the purchase so a good result. Re: How serious is this crack in my brick wall 6Dec 06, 2012 7:16 am Given that the top is wider than the bottom, it sounds as if your footings have dropped somewhat either side of the cracked area. Is there ground butting up to the footing? As it get wet and dry deep down, the clay woudl expand and contract. If so, the crack width woudl change with the soil moisture level. I'm not an expert. Jut applying some logic. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: How serious is this crack in my brick wall 7Dec 06, 2012 9:42 am Most structural engineers these days will stipulate a construction join in a brick wall at no more than 5-6 metres spacings ( depending on things like soil reactivity, footing design etc ) so your wall should definitely have one. You could create your own by cutting through the wall with an angle grinder so that you end up with a 10-12mm groove, installing some expansion join foam and replacing a few of the bricks. If the wall ever expands or contracts again it can without further damaging the rest of the wall. It's messy but relatively cheap to do and doable. Stewie Most likely poor foam installation and render installation, Joint covered with render, foam could be sitting on flashing. Do you have any render at house 4 9307 can’t tell from the photo, a tie down rod will be 12mm, is it a steel beam? he should be able to work it out 1 4444 Thank you alexp79 and gommeqld for your advice, that's very helpful, thanks 3 7902 |