How to repair a wall that is not plumb?

[bobdbuilder]

Hi All, just wondering if anyone else is having the same problem and any ideas to fix.

One of my bedroon walls is an external brick cavity wall. The wall is very out of plumb by about 35 - 40 mm probably due to foundation movement over a long period of time (the house is 1920s). Just to clarify what i mean is that there is a gap between the cornice (on a 2.7m high ceiling) and the internal wall.

What is the best way to make the wall plumb? Should I cement render the wall? Should I rip out the internal brick veneer and rebuild it? Should I use plasterboard on timber battens to hide the problem? Any other ideas?

Thanks

[johnc]

I think you might be well advised to get someone to look at the problem. Re rendering will give a tempory fix to the problem but not solve anything the crack will reappear. Get a builder, or building engineer or whatever takes your fancy and get the footing checked out to see if under pinning is required or if you simply have movement from damp, or dry ground, tree root attack whatever.

Simply get to the cause and then you can identify the fix which may be expensive.

John.

[ozwinner]

Foundation failure will be the cause.
The only real cure is to take down the wall, make sure the foundations have settled or redo the foundations.
And rebrick the wall.

Anything else is a bandaide fix and will just reoccure later on.

Al

[bobdbuilder]

Hi Gents, thanks for your replies. The though of needing to doing something to the foundation gives me a bad stomach.

I took another careful look at where the cracks where and found that on the outside the wall was almost perfect plumb up to about half way up after which the wall begins to slant outwards. Cant make out what could have caused that.

[ozwinner]

I took another careful look at where the cracks where and found that on the outside the wall was almost perfect plumb up to about half way up after which the wall begins to slant outwards. Cant make out what could have caused that.

Ok.

Different probabale cause.

Is the wall load bearing?
Is there any outward force on the top of the wall?

If so, maybe the wall ties have rusted away letting the top of the wall lean out.

You dont live by the sea do you? A lot of older houses failed in the rust proofing of wall ties many years ago, now if you live by the sea the wall ties have to be Stainless Steel.

Al

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Maybe the brickie was on autopilot and his hands played "let's see how many ties we can skip before he notices"?

[rod@plasterbrok]

Hi Bob,

Provide you can get the issues sorted as to why the wall is like that.

Rather than trying to render 40mm thick (not a good idea), you can level the wall using plasterboard directly stuck onto the rendered wall.

To to this you cut 100 x 100 blocks of plasterboard and create leveling pads to stick the sheet on. Chips back paint where applying pads or cornice adhesive.

Here is a rough diagram.

Attachment 29326Attachment 29327

Hope you can understand that it was a bit quick.

hmm cant seem to get them right way up!

Ok better but haven't got time to get them perfect.

Cheers

[ozwinner]

Hi skew,

Provide you can get the issues sorted as to why the wall is like that.

Rather than trying to render 40mm thick (not a good idea), you can level the wall using plasterboard directly stuck onto the rendered wall.

To to this you cut 100 x 100 blocks of plasterboard and create leveling pads to stick the sheet on. Chips back paint where applying pads or cornice adhesive.

Here is a rough diagram.

Attachment 29321

Attachment 29322

Hope you can understand that it was a bit quick.

hmm cant seem to get them right way up!

Cheers

But it doesnt sort out the real problem, it just papers over it so to speak.

Al

[rod@plasterbrok]

Hmm that is why I said "provided you can get the issues sorted out why the wall is like that"