Tighten house advice

Hey all, looking for some advice . . . I've got two vertical cracks in my house that widen quite a bit during the winter. They're in upstairs bedrooms, are probably along sheetrock seams, and have grown a bit in length year to year. One has turned horizontal about halfway down the wall. Both have really grown this year due to the crazy snow totals we had. I plan to plaster them soon.

My question is, is there any type of support I could add in my attic to pull the house tighter in hopes of minimizing this issue down the road? I was thinking of something like a come-along from one side of the house to the other. The attic has a bed of insulation atop the beams and access through a closet ceiling, so getting up there is a chore. But, I'd like to look into a counter to snow loads cracking my walls if anyone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance,
Darrell

 

Oz

 

Are the cracks in the walls or ceiling ? Or at the wall to ceiling interface ?

Is the roof framing system trusses or rafters ?

 

Sounds like the foundation might be shifting? Since you mention that they get larger after the winter maybe that your footings are above the frost line. Just my guess.

 

I would check the foundation first. If that's not it, I would be looking for evidence of remodeling. You never know, someone could have taken out a load bearing wall or something.

 

The cracks are in the walls. They begin at the intersection of the wall and ceiling and work down, jagged like a lightning bolt. One wall is an outside wall. The other is between two rooms. I have no snow on my roof right now and they're barely visible. If one were to stand in the room facing the front of the house, the roof would be front-to-back and the cracked walls would be on the left and right.

The roof framing system is rafters.

While it's possible the foundation is shifting, they seem to change most by downward pressure from the roof.

Thanks!

 

There is a good chance the heavy snow load that was on the roof compressed the roof , deflected the roof rafters which then thrust outward on the exterior walls

 

Yes, that's what I was thinking. Do you know of any cabling system or alternative idea that I could put in place up there so I don't have similar/continuing problems each winter?

 

Adding some collar ties might be the easiest solution but without seeing the roof framing it's hard to accurately suggest a remedy

 

Okay, thanks. I'll look into that. I appreciate the time!

 

If you can click a picture inside the attic it might help .

 

Are your ceiling joist tails fastened together over the interior bearing wall(s)?

 

Strong ties...do you have a lot of wind blowing against your house?

 

Those are a pretty tough retrofit , ask me how I know

 

yeah I know too really tough to know whats going on with OP house...without some pics and some more info...such as wind direction, wall heights etc.

 

Those hold downs don't really effect wind loading for deflection anyways .

 

Fracking in your neighborhood?

 

I'd would contact a structural engineer , I had to once , it took a lot of investigation by him to figure out and solve the problem . You could do more harm if your not sure of the solution.

 

Well hopefully the OP got something figured out in the year since this thread was started haha