Cracks in lounge wall due to movement information and advice on general building topics, builders merchants, problem builders, DIY Stores etc....

[Jenny T]

Hi. I'm after some advice please. I have a wall in the lounge that has long cracks in as the house moved some years ago before we bought it. Every time we fill them in they open again and have torn the wallpaper in doing so. I have been told we need to take it back to the brick and repair the wall then cover it again. I saw my father in law repair an upstairs room by wedging wood in the gaps in the brick so it couldn't move and we've never had a problem with it since. This wall had already been taken back to brick as we were renovating.

My question is this: instead of taking the whole wall in the lounge back to brick, could I just take the plaster etc off in few places where the cracks are and wedge the bricks? It'd be far easier but not sure it'd work. Any advice would be really appreciated, thank you

Jenny

[stoneyboy]

Hi jenny t
Since this is an ongoing problem you really need to fit ties across the cracks - frequency will depend on the length of the cracks. This will entail removing plaster either side of the crack, raking out joins and fitting crack stitching bars.
Fitting wooden wedges is unlikely to work because the wood will always be expanding and contracting.
Regards S

[Jenny T]

Hi Stoneyboy (feels weird calling you that). Thank you fir your advice. Am I best to get someone in to do it or is it relatively easy? I’m quite handy if it’s not too difficult.

Thank you

[stoneyboy]

Hi jenny_t
Sounds like you are able to remove plaster so next you will have to rake out the joins across the crack probably to 20-30mm, clean out the join very carefully. You'll then need to buy a stitching kit, suggest you go for one where you mix the resin rather than it being in mastic tubes.
Have a look on line, there are step by step instructions there.
Regards S

[Jenny T]

Brilliant thank you very much!