Cracks at top of bathroom wall, should I be worried

[SimonH2]

I suspect the answer is "not really" but I would welcome opinions.

One of my tenants mentioned that a crack at the top of the wall in the bathroom had got a bit worse. I've used to cracks between wall and ceiling, this one's a bit worse.

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• SimonH2
• 25 Apr 2014
• 1

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• SimonH2
• 25 Apr 2014
• 1

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• SimonH2
• 25 Apr 2014
• 1

For context, the wall is the party wall between this house and the flats next door - as I stand taking the pictures, to my right is the bathroom window directly above the white Land Rover here :

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• SimonH2
• 7 May 2013
• 2

And to the left is the stud partition wall with door to the landing - you can just see the very corner of the door frame in the first picture.

 

[SimonH2]

Just to add, there aren't any significant cracks anywhere else - particularly between ceiling and outside wall. I'd say here the worst is about where the bottom of the scrim tape across the ceiling/wall join will be.

 

[JohnD]

is this crack on the top floor?

I'm thinking it is a wall plate, being a piece of timber along the top of the wall, that the ceiling/roof sits on.. In which case it is normal to crack, because the plaster does not adhere so well as it does to the brickwork, and the timber will expand and contract with humidity changes, which will be especially severe in a bathroom that does not have an effective extractor.

 

[ree]

You are on a hill with slopes on two sides.

There are garage openings at the base of the rear elevation, and window and a door opening. A lot of openings and lintels.

Have you had a look in the loft area above the cracks, where ceiling joists and rafters tie into the wall plate - as mentioned above.

Presumably your walls are cavity walls. Thermal cracking rarely shows on the inside face of cavity walls.

You could hack off plaster to reveal the state of the backing, and post pics of what you find.

 

[SimonH2]

I haven't had a look in the loft yet - it means taking some ladders down, plus it's a pain to get to down in the eaves with all that glass fibre in the way.

It's a cavity wall, but not an outside one - it's the party wall between the house and next door. I can't see any other cracks other than the very small ones I've used to seeing between wall and ceiling.

The roof is trussed construction, the trusses run parallel to the wall in the photos.

I'll have a bit of a prod and see what comes off.

 

[masona]

Could be there's no expanded metal lath on the wallplate or plaster mesh tape on plasterboards

 

[SimonH2]

There won't be a wallplate on that wall - it continues up into the attic as the party wall. I suspect the problem is that there is mesh tape between the ceiling and wall - so instead of just having a small crack in the corner, it's pulled the plaster off down to the bottom of the mesh.