We arrived home from our trip away to find Brisbane dry, very, very dry. In fact the last time I can recall seeing so much dead grass must be 8 years ago. There is barely any green to be seen and keeping the water up to the gardens, is proving to be a very time consuming and costly job indeed. What is not necessarily common knowledge is how dry weather can impact your home. Walking around our home on the day we arrived home, I was surprised to see just how many superficial cracks were appearing in my home. The ceilings, walls and floors have all cracked, by why does this happen and what can you do about it?

There Are Cracks In My House, Help!

The cracks that appear in your home, for the most part, are a natural process that occurs when the ground is so dry. As the ground dries up, the earth begins to contract and with it, your footings may move ever so slightly. The movement in the footings, can create cracks in your slabs, floors, walls and ceilings.

Living in an old Queenslander, we have lots of cracks appearing in the joins between the VJ boards and the floor boards. Some are small and barely noticeable, others can be very wide and unsightly.

Now that you know why they happen, what can you do about it? Well our best advice, is for now, nothing. You see, once the rain comes, and it will eventually come, the same areas will swell again. Over Winter when there was plenty of moisture in the ground, we had no cracks here at Pen Y Llechwedd, with the rain they will again subside.

Concrete is also prone to cracking when expansion joints have not been appropriately placed. Plasterboard should rarely crack. If it has, our advice is to have a professional Engineer or Builder have a look at what is happening. There may be more going on than the run of dry weather is responsible for.

Once the wet season is over, we will reassess our cracks, if any need filling, we will simple fill with a quality gap filler, and give the wall or ceiling a light touch up with paint. Such is the joy of living in an old home.