Is a structural inspection a thing?

[Anonymous]

I bought a 1930's home three years ago, and we're seeing more and more cracks in the ceilings and walls appear lately. Looking closely, it looks like some had been previously plastered/repaired and painted over, but some seem to be new.

An apprentice home inspector gave us a home inspection for free last year and identified that some of the structural supports in the basement seem to be needing repair - some nails are missing where the beams meet.

We are reluctant to repaint any major areas before we have a sense of what the deal is with these cracks -- is it just normal old home settling, or could there be a larger structural issue that we need to deal with?

Who can answer this question for us? And how much might it cost? Our home is about 2000sq ft.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you are looking for a structural engineer to inspect your home. I have no idea what this costs. Are the cracks in the walls vertical or horizontal? I believe it is the horizontal ones that indicate more than your standard house settling.

[Anonymous]

$500 or so. Structural engineer can tell you.

Look at brick work outside, it's usually the place to find problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$500 or so. Structural engineer can tell you.

Look at brick work outside, it's usually the place to find problems.

Thanks much. We're looking to bump out the back of the 2nd floor of our Cape Cod sometime in the next maybe 5 years or so (shed dormer) so maybe someone could evaluate the structure for both at the same time.

Any structural engineer recs in NoVa welcome and appreciated!!

[Anonymous]

We bought a 1910 home and had a structural engineeer inspect the foundation before we bought. It was around $500. House had cracks in walls ceiling too. Foundation needed some bracing and that was a few thousand dollars.

What kind of foundation do you have? If it's cinder block get it inspected asap. If poured it's ok. Unlikely to be a huge issue.

[Anonymous]

Yeah this is why old houses aren't really built better

[Anonymous]

If the ceilings are ancient plaster they may just be sagging due to age.