Crack along the grain in supporting beam
Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:45 pm
We have been renovating an 1850's granite and slate farm house in west wales. it is very damp and at present has no heating other than two calor gas fires and some electric oil radiators. We are only using one half of the house as the other needs serious work to dry it out and keep it dry. Since we have moved in we heat the living room during the day (calor gas) and the bedroom at night (oil radiators on electric). Since we've moved in (July) we've repaired the chimney and a leaking pipe behind a false wall but a lot of water is coming in through porous lime pointing and cracked render. The sitting room was very damp but is considerably drier than it has been for a long time. Cracks have appeared in the supporting beam in the ceiling of the ground floor, they are along he grain, coming from each end but not meeting in the middle. HOW WORRIED SHOULD WE BE?