from Candice @ Exovations: My house is approx 9 years old and in the last year we have noticed that...
the ceiling is cracking in random places and a few of the doors on the interior of the house do not close properly and will no longer lock. My husband thinks the house is settling. OK. But what do we do in reaction to this? Obviously, we need to patch and paint the ceiling cracks but what about the doors? I no longer want a "cracked out" house- no pun :)
Have you had unusual amounts of water around or under your home?
Many times more water or extreme dry periods will cause the soil to expand or shrink causing the problems you mention. ...»
These problems can also be caused by excessive water on plants next to the foundation of the home, or a water leak caused by a defective watering system for your plants.
I have seen much larger issues than you speak of caused by water accumulating in areas next to or under homes.
Someone needs to investigate for water issues that could be causing your problems.
For doors not working properly these could be due to humidity swings and how the doors are built. Racking is a common issue in some settling environments, here the "reveal" of the gap around a ...»
Gaps along the door stops may show twist in the door itself, where one corner may stick out. In some of these cases you can reset the stop to allow the strike to engage better...
with out seeing some of these its a little hard to diagnose.
You may need a structural person to come take a look, otherwise you won't know to what extent the problem will continue.
If the house is not going to continue to settle, the following are methods of patching that ...»
I have seen this literally hundreds of times around here where there are wall cracks above the doors and the doors start to bind, etc. I am shocked when I go into a house and do not see these issues to one degree or another, especially multi-story houses.
Best, Charles
Best, Charles