House Of cracks

[solway]

Went to look at a 2 storey house today built about 25 years.Red brick up as far as 1st floor level and normal blockwork with traditional s&c render the rest of the way up. The west and south facing gables are destroyed in vertical and horizontal cracks. Some follow the "L" shape of the blockwork. There are also stress cracks at the corners of reveals and at the end of the window cills vertical,horizontal,angle ways. Its shocking to look at but there is no sign of subsidence as there are no cracks in the brickwork but serious movement in the upper half of the house. The plasterwork is solid to the substrate and does not sound hollow or drummy in 75% of the problem areas but parts here and there are slightly hollow.It seems like a blockwork problem.Im looking for solutions as to what direction to take. I don't want to hack off the plaster and re plaster as I reckon the cracks will reappear.I was thinking of covering the elevations with cement board and using a base coat and thincoat render system. An expensive solution but I cant think of another way out.I have an engineer lined up to take a look and get his professional opinion aswell.Some of the cracks are 5-6mm wide and in 1 area of the house at the corner where the front meets the side gable has moved at least 1/2 an inch.Would there be any issues using the cement board system.Money aint an issue as house insurance covering the costs.

 

[malc]

my money is celcon blocks on the external with roof spread.
if insurance co. is covering the cost they will instruct a structural engineer to be in charge of the works and he will choose a contractor to carry out his instruction.

 

[Deleted member 23452]

As @malc said, but another possibility are lack, or failure of wall ties if it's two skins of block. If it's timber framed then it could be movement in the frame for a variety of reasons.

 

[Rhys]

Our lasses house is built using Thermalite blocks - nearly all of the internal walls have cracks in them and in places it looks like the backing plaster has shelled off the blocks. Probably built using a strong mortar mix.