How Do I Know If A Crack In My Wall Is Serious?

Is the crack on my wall serious?

You may notice small cracks on your wall or ceiling and ask yourself - is that crack a small sign of a bigger problem?

Simple settling

If your home getting “spider veins” or hairline cracks in the drywall or ceiling, those could be a sign that your house is just settling. A house settling is not itself an issue. Every home settles after it is built, so tiny, hairline cracks usually are nothing to worry about.

The crack is not as serious of an issue, and may indicate that it was created due to settling, if the the crack is vertical and originates near the point where the wall and ceiling come together. Often, when you hear loud cracks and pops in the night, that is the sound of your house settling. These small cracks can be filled/repaired so they are not an eyesore. 

Cracks in walls and ceilings - when to worry

Sometimes, cracks are indicators that your home may have serious foundation problems.

Stair-stepped cracks in an outside wall as pictured below for example, likely indicate movement/shifting of your foundation which is causing the brick and mortar to separate. You'll want to seek professional help to get this fixed.

Cracking sheetrock at a 45 degree angle from your doors or windows as pictured below, could just be simple settling as mentioned above. However, if you are seeing this all over your house, you'll want to seek a professional opinion. It's better to know if you have a problem so you can fix it, than let it sit and get worse over time. 

Cracks in foundation and stem wall as pictured below, According to Rosie-Certified Arizona Foundation Solutions, you'll often see vertical and/or horizontal cracks. Horizontal cracks "almost always point to a single cause... Rusting of the horizontal rebar embedded in the concrete (see [our] blog on this) unlike vertical cracks which have a variety of causes. Read more about that HERE.

Jammed doors as pictured below could be a sign of a foundation issue or could have nothing to do with your foundation at all! If you live in an older home, sometimes the hardware could be starting to fail, making the door sag and thus "stick" when you are trying to open/close it. Other times, if there has been a good rain and the humidity is high, this could cause the wood of the door to swell and then "stick". However, if you've assessed the hardware of the door, and there is little to no humidity causing the door to swell, and you're seeing cracks around the doors and windows - it may be time to call a foundation specialist to get that looked at.

Simple DIY evaluations:

To determine if the cracks in your walls are warning you of a structural issue, try these two simple tests:

 1 | The tape test: Place a strip of low adhesive tape (the blue painters tape would be good) across the crack and mark the tape on each side of the crack. If the crack gets longer, you’ll know it because it will extend past the pen marks or cause one side of the tape to fall off. That means the foundation is continuing to shift and settle. Call a foundation specialist for an examination. 

2 | The pencil test: Jab the sharpened tip of a pencil into the crack. If it fits and doesn’t fall out, trouble could be brewing. Call a foundation specialist to take a look.

At the end of the day, if you have major concerns - trust your gut feeling and hire a professional to evaluate your home. 

Types of cracking:

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