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cheerpeople

what are these cracks telling me?

cheerpeople
13 years ago

Looked at a house that was built 21 years ago.

It has either poor taping or some other issue. Wondering what these should be telling me about this house.

It is an odd house, very pricey for our area, with a weirdo floor plan and lofty irregular ceilings with these cracks on a lot of the wall intersections.

Not sure if we are going to make an offer but we do have to move somewhere. let me know, thx

I'll try an attach the realitor listing on the next post so you can see a few good pics.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Comments (9)

  • revamp
    13 years ago

    Why are you having to move? Are you in a rush to buy? I wouldn't be rushing to spend over a million on a home you by all accounts aren't thrilled with. As such a home is astronomically out of my price range, I may not be the best person to answer your questions--but I would be concerned that the concerns you have about the home may make it all the more difficult to in turn sell it down the road.

    Is the pond a unique feature? Are you more interested in the acreage than the home? You didn't give us much in the way of details for anyone to offer more suggestions other than you could always have the place inspected.

    ...and who messes up a drywall job on a million dollar home?

  • Adella Bedella
    13 years ago

    I don't think it's a million dollar home. I think the acreage is a larger percentage of the price.

    I'm not an expert. Those cracks look like a shrinkage of the wood as it loses it's moisture over time. My house is only a year old, I had a few cracks that sort of looked like that. I was told that the lumber is not as high quality as it used to be and is not dried as well. I was forwarned that I might get cracking like that. I had the drywall guy fix it last month. Your house is older, but humidity and moisture could still affect it. Obviously, you would bring an expert in to look at it if you wanted to pursue buying it. I'm guessing it probably isn't a big deal.

    Northern/midwestern style of houses is often different than what I'm used to seeing so I won't comment on the exterior. I can't tell the weirdness of the layout from the pictures. As far as changing the interior, it looks like you could remove some of the trim and not accentuate some of the beams and stuff that stand out buy painting trim, walls and beams??? one color.

  • jane__ny
    13 years ago

    I'm not familiar with your area at all, but I do live in a very pricey area of NY. In my opinion, the house is over-priced. The price per sq ft is high. The rooms are not large and I wonder if it has central A/C.

    The land is another story. What is the price of land in this area? Do you need this amount of property?

    I would have your Realtor ask about the cracks and let the homeowners know you have concern about them. I'd be interested in their explanation.

    The house is pretty. I can't see the layout as you can. I'm not crazy about the white trim with that wall color, but paint can always be changed.

    Have you researched the comps. in the area?

    Jane

  • ncrealestateguy
    13 years ago

    The poster is not asking if anyone thinks it is overpriced, or if they think it might be too much land. No one can say it is overpriced w/o being a local to the market.
    I would put in an offer with a written contingency concerning the cracks.

  • cheerpeople
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Darn,
    GW lost my whole message. I'll retype briefly.
    Thx.
    I decided not to make an offer.
    We have to move because we rent and have to move now that the landlord died. This isn't not the answer. We were trying find place for our horses and keep the kids in the same school.

    My husband was wanting to flip it in a few years, but it isn't flipable.
    I wasn't wanting to move again in a few years. I guess the whole thing was a misunderstanding.

    thx again

  • brickeyee
    13 years ago

    The four cracks in the pictures look like typical drying cracks.

    The framing lumber shrinks and the drywall fastened to it cracks.

    None of them appear to be related to structural issues.

  • chisue
    13 years ago

    I have some similar issues with shrinkage between walls and ceiling and in one place where two walls meet. What's the 'fix' for this problem? Painters attempted to fix the wall-to-wall crack, but it re-appeared in a few months.

  • Adella Bedella
    13 years ago

    My drywall guy put a couple of skimcoats on it and then re-textured the area. Some of the cracks, they just put paintable caulk on it.