Sagging beams and cracked gyprock.

[bert33]

Hi - all new here, have a problem in my lounge room / kitchen , since moving into the house I have noted large crack that runs directly vertical under a large wooden beam (with reference to the attached pictures it is the beam above the window). I have tried fixing the cracks several times with tape and plaster but always end up with the same crack pattern running vertical from the beam to floor, excluding the window.

My assumption although I am a nurse first, handyman(ish) second is that the beam is not properly supported by either timber running directly from under the beam to the floor or by a horizontal beam under the larger beam. Their are two large windows with the little wall space for proper supporting and i fail to see how this can hold. Under the larger beam next to the dog picture is also cracking running back to the window.

Given we are just about to re-do the kitchen should i be looking at solutions to fix this wall, perhaps rebracing the wall and putting in smaller windows? This area of the house has two different ceiling heights as the the kitchen is up on piers and the lounge room is step down and built on slab. it is an ild house so i understand there is movement but i think this issue is soley related to insufficient support in the frame.8899888997

Regards and thank you in advance for any feedback.

[ringtail]

What crack ? I cant see one, the picture is too grainy/ blury. Is that beam above the window horizontal or is it a exposed roof rafter ? bit hard to tell from the photo. Either way, I doubt there is sufficent clearance above the window to allow for deflection and this is giving you the cracking. Need to strip the wall to see whats going on.

edit - sorry, just looked at the first photo again and see the beam. It appears that the right hand window is deflecting ( look at the top archtrave). Over that sort of span the windows should have about 20 mm min clearance from the head. It looks like they maybe fixed to the underside of beam that runs across the windows which picks up the exposed beam

[bert33]

The photos are not the best but there is a vertical crack that runs from the beam to the top of the window architrave and continues under the archtrave vertically to the floor. I have always thought given the size of the windows there is insufficent support holding the beam. In between the beam and the window there isnt enough clearence to have a horizontal beam that can support it either.

i wish it was easy as identyfying myself as a poor plasterer but having sheeted and set a few other walls successfully I always come back to this issue.

In remedy I guess looking forward i am looking at smaller windows and bracing directley under the beam?

This is just one of many issues to tackle......

[ringtail]

I dont see an easy way out other than too strip the gypock off the wall and see what sort of dodginess is going on with the the framing. After its all sorted with beam size and connections, adjust window size to suit giving adequate clearance from the beams above

[Bloss]

What size crack are you talking about? Under 1-2mm and a timber of brick veneer house on reactive soils can be expected. Fill with flexible filler and that's about it. Doubt by the look of the age of the house that it is anything of a major structural problem. So unless you are planning on doing work and need to remove the plaster anyway leave it alone would be my view.