Ralph -
I've put my answers, below. Thanks for your
ideas.
- Pam
Pam,
Thanks for the pix. My guess
remains differential settlement, although there could also be some weird stuff
happening below the line where the two roofs meet, due to lateral thrust (I
think it's thrust, and will have everybody jumping down my throat soon enough
if it's not thrust) on the walls imposed by the roof framing at the
tops of the walls. The roof was replaced, including joists, about 5
years ago - I remember driving by when the work was being done. The
replacement was to the entire house. The last time I looked up in the
"attic", which is tough to get to from our bedroom closet - it looked OK to
me. However, I wasn't looking too closely at the connection from
there.
Having said all that, am I correct in assuming
that the problem on the front of the house is in the wall (along the
quoins) to the left of the front door, and at the back where the 2
masonry wings meet? And is there still a masonry wall between the two
wings, or has it been removed? The
cobblestone wall between the 2 sections still exists. There are two
standard size 18" thick doorway arches (no door) on the first floor,
and one on the second floor. On both floors, the floor of the old
section is a step up from the new section.
Do you have
any close-up detail photos of whatever cracks there are that are visible on
the exterior? I wasn't clear in my original post - the cracks
outside are radial ones around the windows, and are minor. The CRACKS of
the year are on interior walls. That's why I was saying I don't
happen to have any interior pictures to show the
cracks. Are the cracks wider at the top of the wall
than at the bottom, or vice versa? The cracks look to have
started at the top of the wall and run down it. One looks like it's
curving out from the wall where it meets at the
corner. Worse at the front than the rear, or vice
versa? Are you getting water penetration to the interior at or
near the cracks? Not that we have noticed - for instance, we
don't notice any moisture on the interior walls, nor in the basement or as
best we can see in the crawl space. My guess is that
rather than fooling around with these guys' mortar mixes, you should just
caulk the damn crack, since whether it's moving or not, it needs to be filled
(to keep the weather out; pointing the crack isn't going to give you any
structural value to speak of), and caulk is easier to do and will
expand/contract, or just sit there, as required.
Yes, the outside certainly needs something so any damage (past and future) is
avoided. However, I would prefer if we can hold off until spring
for the minor exterior cracks, then I can find a mason who can match the
mortar colour - ][<en once told me the term for this, but I don't
recall it. The colour is toward the yellow, and I think caulk would
reduce the aesthetics and value of the work. One of those "it ain't
worth doin' if it ain't done right"
philosophies.
Lastly, do you have any sense of
whether the cracks gotten appreciably wider in the recent past, or have they
been there for 100-- or 150-- years? There might be a few more
radial cracks since we moved in, but I'm not positive. The interior
cracks in question either were there when we moved in (but small), or
they are new since we moved in. It's because we have only lived there 3
years that the growth of these cracks concerns me. If they are the
product of differential settlement, why would it be so great now compared
to the assumed past 160 years? I do not think this is new plaster that's
finally aging - it has a pretty old look to the components of
it. If it were new, I have a feeling the prior owners (who put in a
couple drop ceilings) would have just put up sheetrock if they had done
any work of that sort. They spent all their money on the
roof.
Let the second guessing
begin!
Ralph