Sizes, Symptoms and Solutions of Building Crack

We all are familiar with cracks occurring in the wall, slab and beams of our houses. We are ignoring cracks in our houses daily simply because we are unknown what the crack is all about and how serious is the consequence of cracks in our residential as well as commercial building.

We hereby show you how to assess and prevent the cracks in your buildings. At first, we classify the cracks of buildings based on their sizes and give you the solutions together.

Crack in walls, Should I be worried for fix?

Should you be always worried with the cracks? No, but it all depends on size of cracks. According to our experience and research, we have divided cracks in buildings in six categories.

Cracks of sizes greater than 25mm

Whenever we see cracks of sizes greater than 25mm, we say that the cracks signify severe structural damage. Structural damage may have occurred due to subsidence of ground or by excess earthquake load or live load occurring during the life of building. Effects like walls leaning and beams losing bearing are seen. If the number of cracks are more than one, the crack size may be lesser than 25mm for the same category. These building often require dismantling all together because the floor sloping is severe most. This level of damage can be categorized as 3^rd level of damage.  

Cracks of Sizes greater than 15mm but lesser than 25mm

If the cracks seen is in the range of greater than 15mm but lesser than 25mm, then we can say that extensive damage has occurred in the building. Common symptoms of extensive damage include building floors sloping noticeably and the doors and windows of buildings distorted in size.  Beams lose bearing with column partially or sometimes fully and service pipes are disrupted. If the number of cracks are more, then the sizes of the cracks may be lesser than this but according to the symptoms, we can say that building has been damaged with requirements for maintaining doors and windows and sometimes rebuilding floors. The causes can be thermal or ground settlement. This level of damage can be categorized as 2nd category of damage. The solution for this problem could be grouting. Grouting is done by placing grouting nozzle and applying grout using a pressure machine at a pressure of 500psi. This requires especially skilled manpower and equipment and is costlier too.

Cracks of size 5 mm to 15 mm width

If we see a single crack in a wall bound between two beams and two columns and its size lies between 5mm to 15mm, then we say that building has not been damaged up to that point where major maintenance is required. The symptoms that we see are the service pipes fracturing and doors and window sticking not providing weather tightness. These cracks are maintained often by replacing small segment of cracked brickwork with new brickwork and repointing of the brickwork in most of the cases. This level of damage can be categorized as 3^rd category of damage.

Cracks widths ranging from 1mm to 5mm

These are not structural cracks. These cracks can easily be filled. However, there is high chance that these cracks will recur. If these cracks recur, some new designs in form of linings can be made in order to hide these cracks. The symptoms of these crack are doors and windows might stick slightly with masonry, removing the groove out. They may sometimes require repointing works in the exterior brickwork in order to ensure weather tightness. Repointing can be carried out using crack seal. At first, the crack is widened using grinder and the cracks are cleaned using wire brush and then washed with water. After completely drying the surface, a layer of crack seal is placed. The crack seal is allowed to dry and then applied twice. This ensures that the crack is completely filled. Then the surface is prepared and paint is applied for final finish.

Cracks of width up to 1mm

These cracks are only restricted to internal walls and rarely extend up to external walls. Application of putty can cover this crack problem and it doesn’t have high rate of recurrence.

Cracks of width 0.1 mm

These cracks are often called hairline cracks. It shows itself in smooth surfaces only. It is not at all significant and doesn’t require any solution. It should only be given attention if the width of the crack increases seasonally or gradually increase over time. In such case, seepage or ground settlement might have happened.

Conclusion

Cracks in walls need to be renovated on time so that the problem of seepage doesn't occur. In case the problem of seepage and renovation occur, SkillSewa is always there to help you.