« Wanna See One Brooklyn Bridge Park? Get In Line Brooklyn Inn: Same as Ever, Just Better »

April 30, 2007

Front Page Forum: Meaning of the Crack

bstonerstairs7.jpg
Within a month or two of moving in to our house, we began noticing cracks in the paint along the molding along the stairs to the top floor. Our contractor at the time said it was no big deal — just a result of the stress of footsteps on the stairs. Although it sounds plausible, we thought we'd see if there was anything less benign that could be at work. Has this happened in your house?




Posted by Brownstoner at 11:12 AM | Comments (32)
Categories: Forum

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.brownstoner.com/mte/mt-tb.cgi/1056

Comments

Heating and Cooling = Expansion and Contraction = cracks.

Posted by: Anon at April 30, 2007 11:18 AM

oh yeah...same thing! We hired a handy man to patch and repaint. Ah, the joys

Posted by: Anonymous at April 30, 2007 11:24 AM

I have tons of little cracks in the paint in my apartment--around windows, in corners. I've been terrified that it meant the whole building was about to fall over.

Posted by: Lauren at April 30, 2007 11:26 AM

Hi Brownstoner. I'd love to talk about your crack. Thanks for the offer.

Cracks result in part from expansion and contraction due to an increase or decrease in moisture in your home. They are also a side effect of "settling" which happens to ALL old homes. Often cracks occur at the corners of doors and windows or near load bearing walls. The cracks along your stairs seem to suggest that the support system of your stair is settling mildly, and hence, it is being pulled from the wall.

Have there been any changes in your home recently? Anything going on near your house that could cause more drastic settling (e.g., construction next door, etc.)? I'm pretty sure you are just dealing with ordinary settling, but if you are concerned, you should measure its width. If it gets wider over a relatively short period of time, or if you notice anything else, you may want to hire an engineer to see if you have a structural problem. With all the building collapses at construction sites, I can see why you may be concerned, but I'm pretty sure you are not at risk for structural failure.

My advice: there's no need to be so anal about your crack.

Posted by: Ed at April 30, 2007 11:31 AM

I just inspected your crack again. Because of it's location ABOVE the baseboard, it looks like it's due to moisture seeping in from under the paint, rather than settling. That's good news actually.

Posted by: Ed at April 30, 2007 11:33 AM

I just inspected your crack again. This time I got a closer look. Because of it's location ABOVE the baseboard, it looks like it's due to moisture seeping in from under the paint, rather than settling. That's good news actually.

My general advice re: settling still stands, if you notice other cracks.

Posted by: Ed at April 30, 2007 11:34 AM

Isn't this all pretty obvious?

Posted by: Anonymous at April 30, 2007 11:35 AM

No.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 30, 2007 11:39 AM

i wonder if it would be possible to install some kind of expansion joint at that location ... something that would have some give and take as the materials on either side expand and contract.

where are the architects when you need them?

Posted by: anon. at April 30, 2007 11:48 AM

Yeah it is called caulk. Also try scraping away the 300 layers of paint first.

Posted by: anon at April 30, 2007 11:54 AM

no, not obvious. New houses are more prone to this as they are settling. Older houses have pretty much settled.
Along staircase - this could mean stairs are pulling away from wall. Perhaps could add some support somewhere. And don't run up and down them so much adding extra stress.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 30, 2007 11:55 AM

I have to agree with 11:35 .... this is obvious stuff or should be anyway. Weird thing to have on the home page Mr B. Slow news day? Out enjoying this beautiful day maybe?

Posted by: tag482 at April 30, 2007 11:56 AM

Ideally you would have an expansion joint wherever surface planes meet (ie wall to floor) but the stairs in these old houses are built into the wall structure in most cases. You would have to separate the wall side stringer from the wall to allow the stairs to "float" independently from the wall- not worth the effort.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 30, 2007 12:03 PM

I hope the people saying this is "obvious" are not the same people who complain that there are not enough renovation-related posts! This is good information for people who are new to owning old houses.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 30, 2007 12:13 PM

Was the stairwell painted shortly before you bought the house? It looks to me as if the seller caulked the joint where the stairs had already settled long ago, and then painted, and the crack you're seeing is resulting from a too-wide caulk joint. That was badly written, but you get my meaning? Not so much that your stairs just now settled, but that the caulk used to hide that settling is what cracked.

Posted by: bob999 at April 30, 2007 12:14 PM

You say you just moved in - did either you or the previous owner recently paint that baseboard/wall? Very likely - and also likely that whatever is causing the crack has "been there" for awhile (innocuously or not). All the stress of moving in, going up and down stairs may have just opened it up.

Also, what is the wall? Is it sheetrock over lathe or plaster? If so, that is a "cold joint" - as opposed to the original plaster, which went behind the baseboard - and will be very hard to make "perfect". As others have noted, seasonal movement, the shiftiness of old houses, etc. could make this an ongoing thing. IF it is sheetrock, a good flexible, paintable caulk may be the best bet for the cosmetic fix.

As for larger concerns, like structure and integrity, you need an engineer or architect to come to your house (before you paint it over!).

Posted by: Halden at April 30, 2007 12:20 PM

thats some thick paint there - probably load-bearing paint by now

Posted by: Anonymous at April 30, 2007 12:48 PM

All good comments here regarding temperature, and settlement. From the look of that crack, it's plaster, and it's not the first time it's opened up. It has a bulge just above the joint where the plaster meets the wood molding, which suggests that it has moved before. It has the look of compression, possibly suggesting the party wall slipping slightly while the staircase didn't. Are there similar signs of movement under the stair? On lower or higher floors?

The bottom line: it isn't pretty, but neither is it a sign your house is going to fall down. One thing is for sure: it has nothing, and I mean nothing to do with footsteps on the stairs. That's good for a laugh, but do yourself a favor and don't hire the source of that opinion.

good luck

Posted by: raphael at April 30, 2007 12:53 PM


paintable silicon

put it on with a caulking gun and smooth it with a wet finger

very easy thing to fix. sometimes painters use plaster or compound which can crack. silicon is flexible and won't crack.

Posted by: Jake the Snake at April 30, 2007 12:54 PM

This always happens when you put plaster and paint on the walls and over the seam between the wall and the wood. They each contract at a different rate, plus you have the movement of the stairs, hence the crack. The solution is a nice fresh wall, relatively clean wood, painted separately, with a little indentation between wall and wood. Don't try to make them one piece. It will not work. It is not a big deal, and the only way to stop it is to clean out all that crappy plaster, caulk and paint and make a fresh connection that doesn't really try to tie the two elements together.

Posted by: anon at April 30, 2007 1:46 PM

In our house, this would be a harbinger of doom--perhaps the entire hall stairway preparing to telescope into a yawning pit of dust and splinters, just as guests are arriving. Hope yours is better.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at April 30, 2007 1:54 PM

I had the same problem - you may consider applying a light coat of plaster, sand after, and texture paint to hide any inperfections. Worked well for me.

Posted by: Dave at April 30, 2007 1:58 PM

It looks like the contractor used joint compound to fill the void between the sheetrock and the molding.
Joint compound contracts as it cures. Thats why it requires multiple coats with adequate drying time in between.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 30, 2007 2:16 PM

It looks to me like years ago, the baseboard started to seperate from the wall and the gap was filled in with spackle over and over again. Get rid of the old spakle, scrape the wood, and apply flexible spakle recessed a tad from the top of the baseboard.
Another approach, if you're handy, is to place a new piece of molding -a scotia or cyma- on the baseboard that bridges the gap and looks like it was always a part of the baseboard. The added molding is the best solution, spakle will always crack.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 30, 2007 2:42 PM

Jeez, all these solutions from amateur carpenters. You'd think this is something anyone could handle with 0.25*Brain and an Andrew Jack$on.

Lets get back to relevant, chop licking topics like the old days. Can I hear an Amen?

Posted by: Anonymous at April 30, 2007 3:30 PM

anonymous 3:30 is the kind of expert I'd want around no matter what. carpenters, amateur or otherwise, work with wood, not plaster and paint. Seems to me there's some good helpful responses there, but since you're the expert, why don't you volunteer to monitor the forum from now on so we don't get any more amateur advice? tia.

Posted by: anon at April 30, 2007 4:09 PM

live with it it's nothing.

Posted by: Mo at April 30, 2007 4:34 PM

My advice to you is to sell now...as quickly as you can. Your home suffers from irreparable and ultimately catastrophic structural damage and you can either lose every penny you have sunk into your home or you can palm it off on some other unsuspecting chump.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 30, 2007 6:24 PM

This crack should not be a problem as long as you don't smoke it.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 30, 2007 9:31 PM

My contractor spent almost a year completely renovating my duplex apartment, including new molding around including base molding. A lot of the carpentry was done last summer. This winter cracks and spaces showed up everywhere, particularly at mitered joints and where a lot of plaster repair was done. Last week his guys came back and used 12 tubes of Alex caulking. I was pretty concerned at first, but an old hand builder told me that this is typical for all the reasons listed above and that for all new houses he builds, he routinely has someone in to caulk and deal with cracks after the house has settled and lived through a season change. Also noted by my contractor, I live above the A train which provides a steady if barely noticeable source of vibration.

So with a little caulking no big deal.

Posted by: donatella at May 1, 2007 1:07 AM

Move now! That's a sign of Freisberg's Syndrome.

Typically this type of cracking occurs due to termites eating at the old caulk. They then leave droppings, which over time expands.

The linear cracking is a sign that the damage goes deep into the wall.

There is no way to repair it, short of removing the entire wall, and starting from scratch.

THe other solution would be to sell me your house.

I promise to give you a fair deal, considering the dangerous condition.

How about 45 cent on the dollar?

Posted by: AnonymousNegro at May 1, 2007 1:26 AM

The crack is a problem with your plumbing. Use you common sense when dealing with your house. If your roof leaks hire a gardener. If I was you I would get the hell out of town and start a new blog called Cracker.com

Posted by: Anonymous at May 1, 2007 8:36 AM

Post a comment

Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.

Latest Restaurant Additions