Hi
I have been living in my owner builder house since it was completed in Nov 2011. Its a a large brick veneer double storey house with flat colour bond roof. When brick work was finished, bricks ties were left unconnected to the frame for a week. During that week, we had very strong winds in south west Sydney. I went on top of the roof and tested all the walls (by pushing the brick wall from inside of roof parapets). I noticed slight movement in one of the walls. As its a 7.5m high wall, I got worried and called the brickie as well as my engineer. They both advised me to connect all the brick ties to frame and it should be good. I connected all the brick ties and the movement disappeared.
For my peace of mind and extra strength, we used around 25 angled brackets for the whole house and used it to tie the bricks to timber studs. 2 independent engineers as well as the council surveyor inspected the walls and satisfactory issued certificates.
Q – I get annoying roof cracking sounds mainly at night time. At 1st I thought it might me mice, however now im convinced that it comes from roof trusses and maybe from colour bond roof. Is it possible that the angled brackets prevent frame/trusses from expansion and contraction and cause these sounds? I also have a hairline crack on one of the external walls. The crack is very thin and very straight right under the weep holes of the 1st floor. Due to the fact its a straight line crack, Im pretty sure it follows the flashing on the bricks. Once again, can these render cracking’s be caused by brick walls screwed to the timber studs and push the brick wall when there is an expansion or contraction on timber trusses.
I believe brick ties allow the frame/trusses to expand or shrink without having much effect on the actual brick walls. Is that any different now that I have connected theses brackets?
Sorry for the long questions, I would really appreciate some advice.
Thanks