Normal settling or structural issues?

[expectantsteelerfan]

Our last house had plaster walls, and the house we lived in before that was new construction.  We bought a house this summer that was built 21 years ago.  

Since moving in, we've noticed several areas of issues...places where the trim has cracked (picture is the worst one in our main living area, but there are more), an area where the drywall is cracked (2nd pic, crack coming out from where a motion sensor was added, so I'm hoping it was caused by that being added), and just today dh pointed out to me that one of our built-ins in our dining room looks like it is detaching from the wall (pics of whole thing, then close up.  The other side of that built in looks the same.  Built in on the other side of the room does not look like this).

Dh is freaking out thinking we have structural issues.  I'm hoping it's all normal wear and tear stuff from the house settling or maybe shoddy workmanship (in the case of the built in and adding the motion sensor thing).  Anyone want to weigh in on whether any of these are major issues we should be doing something about immediately or just keeping an eye on?

[expectantsteelerfan]

Close up of the built in, wouldn't let me add it to the other post.

[dr.girlfriend]

We had an addition built in 2019 and are seeing similar little things. I think it's pretty expected, but I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination. :-)

[orval]

If its not normal, my 25 year old house has a lot of issues!!!

[bhnumbers]

I've seen those kinds of things in old and new houses. I wonder if the previous owners patched up some places before they put it on the market and those patches are now cracking again. We had a place in our old house that we patched and painted twice and both times it broken open again within a year. That house was about 25 years old.

[sakura]

It’s nothing to worry about. Those are normal expansion/contraction lines. They’ll likely be less noticeable in the summer when materials swell from heat & humidity. The trim isn’t cracked, it’s just the joint of two pieces.

[aprilsails]

I agree with bhnumbers. The previous owners probably caulked and painted over those problem spots and they have reappeared with the winter temperatures. Every house I have ever lived in has a few natural fault lines where it doesn’t matter how many times you patch them they will pull apart the paint again.

[mlkgls]

It looks pretty normal to me. I’m no expert, but live in an area prone to foundation issues and I’ve had foundation companies out to take a look at various issues over the years. Take this with a grain of salt, but I’ve previously been told cracks at the drywall seam are usually due to normal settling. Cracks near doors or windows, especially diagonal or uneven, are more worrisome.

If you’re really concerned you could always have someone come out for peace of mind. Foundation companies around here will always come take a look at zero initial cost.

[clairebear]

I do appraisal/real estate work and have been in hundreds of homes. Since those are along seams or edges I wouldn't be too worried. Diagonal cracks from the top of doorways I'd be more wary of. It also depends on the construction of home...are you on a slab? Or do you have a crawl space? What is your ground like? I like in Florida and everything is built on sand and thus homes settle and shift quite a bit. My parents house in NC is built into a mountain on bedrock, it's not moving anytime soon. I wouldn't worry until you see numerous other cracks start appearing. 

[simpsongal]

Ditto OPs - esp common in winter/summer w/expansion and contraction. When I install moldings, I use liquid nails and nails, shims, and joint compound to minimize cracking. It helps but still isn't 100% w/o cracks. Your crown joint isn't great, it should have been a scarf joint cut on a bias and the size of the space is a bit large. You can try and fill it w/joint compound, but it's likely to keep happening. My contractor did crown in my bedroom and didn't use my method (b/c it's time consuming). Of course it's cracking and expanding/contracting a lot more than my other moldings. Annoying, but it is what it is.

[lavender444]

I dont see structural concerns from these pictures.

The crown and the cabinet look like the caulking shrank, which is totally normal. Just re-caulk. Easy peasy.

The horizontal line looks like a result of mud and tape failing when doing drywall. Also an easy enough fix, but probably not a diy job if you're not familiar with drywall.

[bittybomb]

Oh man, I hope not for you.

We finished a large scale renovation in mid 2019. By winter of 2019-20 we noticed that our crown molding seemed to be coming away from the wall in spots. My husband went nuts. Then we learned from several other people who recently went through renovations it’s because of the cold and sure enough in warmer weather it was back to normal. Things were contracting and expanding. Maybe something like that?

[expectantsteelerfan]

Thank you for all the responses. I showed dh and it really helped talk him down! He is really paranoid about something major going wrong with this house for some reason. Every time he shows me any little imperfection, I'm like, let's keep an eye on it and see if it gets worse, and if it does, we'll deal with it, but he can't seem to let things go.

[icedcoffee]

Normal. We have almost identical ones in our home.

[mlkgls]

Feb 9, 2022 11:40:52 GMT -5 expectantsteelerfan said:

Thank you for all the responses. I showed dh and it really helped talk him down! He is really paranoid about something major going wrong with this house for some reason. Every time he shows me any little imperfection, I'm like, let's keep an eye on it and see if it gets worse, and if it does, we'll deal with it, but he can't seem to let things go.

I tend to assume worst case scenario too so I sympathize with your H. My first house was a money pit from almost the moment I moved in and I think I’m still scarred by it. Including an immediate plumbing leak which wasn’t immediately discovered, foundation repair, a broken pipe in the foundation, etc.