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I have been in my house for close to two years now and have had cracks appear throughout on the walls and ceiling. If someone can help me figure out what might be the cause, that would be greatly appreciated!

The house was built in 1948 and is 1,500 square ft.

I have had two foundation repair inspectors come out recently to check the foundation. One noted no problems structurally (they came out to replace the crawl space dehumidifier, but I request a full inspection as well).

The second noticed that there were two locations on the center right end of the house where there was too much spacing between the piers which they said is causing a 3/4" slope in the floor at one corner.

They suggested installing two piers to address this issue.

The slope on that side of the house is noticeable to feel, however the most severe cracking is on the opposite end of the house. On this end of the house the flooring was level.

Is it a reasonable possibility that the cause of the cracking would be this far from the site of the most obvious cracks?

I have checked out the crawlspace and found no damage to the joist or foundation walls and the inspectors say it looks above average for a house of it's age besides the concern of the pier spacing.

Thank you for your thoughts!

The first two pictures are bulges under a paint job we did last year near the sloping floor, I can only imagine that under the paint would wall cracks.

The rest come from the opposite end of the house that we have not painted. near the slope middle of window

window right above sloping area

interior wall/ceiling in the center of the house

interior wall opposite end of the house

exterior wall opposite end of the house

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  • this looks like lath and plaster. do you have pictures of the areas before the cracks, are you sure they weren't already there and then just painted over? if the cracking is old then could easily just be cracks in the plaster from the original settlement of the house over time or as the framing / lath dried out if the seller gave them a coat of paint you'd probably not noticed them until the change is season and the natural expansion of wood cracked the paint that was covering the crack. if you have a roof / wall leak water can cause this kind of cracking too.
    – Fresh Codemonger
    Commented Jun 23, 2023 at 1:55
  • @FreshCodemonger , I do believe these are plaster and lathe I am not 100% sure if the cracks were not there at all, but if they were, they have definitely grown more noticeable over time. I've run over the areas with a moisture meter and there are no significant wet spots. I figured, my next step would be to properly cut out and fill the cracks and just see if anything new pops up, but wanted some opinions first!
    – Jkirby421
    Commented Jun 23, 2023 at 2:07

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It looks mostly like a bad drywall job.

There is no evidance of leak.

Picture 4 shows lack of drywall tape used (at the bottom) you can see large space at drywall joint.

Paint alone will not prevent cracks in drywall.

Mud alone will not prevent cracks in drywall

Tape + Mud is the best solution to prevent normal cracks.

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  • as I mentioned, I have inspected and had a couple of foundation. No cracking in the foundation was found. Just for my own education, is the "large space" missing tape you are referencing what looks like a bulge?
    – Jkirby421
    Commented Jun 23, 2023 at 14:43

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