Cracks in wall above fireplace

dukedalton

I have in the last few weeks started lighting a fire a few times a week in the house I'm renting. I have just discovered a crack in the plaster in the wall running from the top if the fireplace onto the roof. Can anyone tell me if these two occurrences are related, and how worried should I be?

jaspertheghost

the heat cracked it...the chimney may not be insulated or else tis just ****e plastering...same thing happened to me when i lit the fire...tell your landlord..

nacimroc

If its a rented house it may have been vacant for a while. So when you lit it it dried out and cracked. If its small, then no prob, just paint it.

dukedalton

Thanks lads. As far as I know, the fire hadn't been lit for a couple of years before I got the chimney swept a few months ago and began lighting the fire. I'll give the landlord a ring tomorrow and see what she makes of it.

IJS84

Sorry to post on such an old thread, but we have come across the same.
Bought a house mid January and have lit a few fires in that time. Last night we spotted a crack in the paint/plaster above the fire place when we lit the fire.
The crack is running from the mantle piece to the ceiling. No heat or smoke escaping but wondering what would have caused this after about 2 months. We had lit a fire last Friday and then again last night and thats when we spotted it.

Any advice or info would be great

listermint

IJS84 wrote: »

Sorry to post on such an old thread, but we have come across the same.
Bought a house mid January and have lit a few fires in that time. Last night we spotted a crack in the paint/plaster above the fire place when we lit the fire.
The crack is running from the mantle piece to the ceiling. No heat or smoke escaping but wondering what would have caused this after about 2 months. We had lit a fire last Friday and then again last night and thats when we spotted it.

Any advice or info would be great

new house, new plasterwork? or old house ?

IJS84

House was built 2003, plaster work is old to the best of our knowledge.....

listermint

IJS84 wrote: »

House was built 2003, plaster work is old to the best of our knowledge.....

I would personally start by looking around the rest if the house for movement / shift cracks. External walls. Internal walls. The room above the chimney stack also. The chimney itself even from the outside.

If you can see more then it may be an indication of a shift in the building.

most likely the plasterboard on the fireplace will have to be pulled down to see the condition of the wall behind it to insure there isnt a wider problem. You could even have damp coming through and shifting the board off the surface off the wall.

IJS84

I doubt there is a damp issue as fire place is effectively back to back to with neighbors property and we are end of terrace, on the opposite side of house. No other signs of cracks anywhere else that we can see.

We have an alcove essentially on either side of fireplace. We've put up shelves on one side at the weekend and plan to add some shelving on the other side of the fireplace......

Basically the chimney breast (crack in the centre from mantle piece to ceiling) the 2 small side sections, shelves on one side and plan to put shelving on the otherside to match

listermint

IJS84 wrote: »

I doubt there is a damp issue as fire place is effectively back to back to with neighbors property and we are end of terrace, on the opposite side of house. No other signs of cracks anywhere else that we can see.

We have an alcove essentially on either side of fireplace. We've put up shelves on one side at the weekend and plan to add some shelving on the other side of the fireplace......

Basically the chimney breast (crack in the centre from mantle piece to ceiling) the 2 small side sections, shelves on one side and plan to put shelving on the otherside to match

Chimneys run to the roof. I have no idea what backing on to a neighbours property has to do with the chimney stack running from ground to roof level.

Calahonda52

IJS84 wrote: »

I doubt ...

antiskeptic

IJS84 wrote: »

I doubt there is a damp issue as fire place is effectively back to back to with neighbors property and we are end of terrace, on the opposite side of house. No other signs of cracks anywhere else that we can see.

We have an alcove essentially on either side of fireplace. We've put up shelves on one side at the weekend and plan to add some shelving on the other side of the fireplace......

Basically the chimney breast (crack in the centre from mantle piece to ceiling) the 2 small side sections, shelves on one side and plan to put shelving on the otherside to match

It happens. It happened mine.

Might have something to do with the inflexible materials used nowadays. I've a hundred+ year old house and the external render, though well weathered, has no cracks in it. A newish garden wall, the neighbours rerendered house, etc are all cracked - old lime based could accomodate expansion and contraction.

I wouldn't worry too much. You could try repainting with latex (flexible) paint which works on cracked ceilings, then cover with final colour.

It's not going to leak fumes. The flue is under negative pressure (suction) and will tend to suck air in rather than leak smoke out.

IJS84

@ antiskeptic


This actually makes sense to me as my parents house, again over 100 years old doesnt have any of the cracking. Hopefully this is all it may be.

@ listermint

I was thinking you meant damp coming from an external wall, as this side of the house is on the terraced side of the property

muffler

Did you have an extremely big fire at any point prior to noticing the crack? Or perhaps had a fire on continuously (a few hours every day) that wouldnt have been the situation in the past?

I wouldnt rule out what listermint posted above but most likely the crack is due to expansion caused by heat. When there isnt a fire on and the chimney brace goes back to room temperature am I right in saying the crack almost disappears? Fairly common problem.

IJS84

Yes this is what is after happening. We didn't light the fire last night and the crack basically disappeared. So I'd assume it's just down to the expansion due to heat. I suppose the fire we lit earlier in the week was probably bigger than the last ones alright

Thanks for the advice so far guys 👍