External cracks at Front & Rear of property

[Bowsey1021]

Hi,

I bought a house in June 2015 from Persimmon and everything has generally been ok with the house apart from a number of initial snagging issues which got resolved quickly by the site team just after I moved in.
However yesterday when I returned home from work I noticed a thin crack had formed on the right hand side of the front facade of my house between the bottom corner of the upstairs window & the top corner of the ground floor window. It runs along the mortar joint for some of the way but goes vertically down for a lot of the run. It's run is about 2 - 2.5m.
I also went into the garden and a crack has also formed on the left hand side of the house again between the bottom left hand corner of the first floor window frame & the top left hand corner of the patio door surround. Again for the majority of the run the crack is vertical breaking mortar joints and the brick faces. Please see the attached pictures.

I have no issues inside the house. No cracks or visible movements, doors and windows seem to open fine and are not sticking (apart from front door which is black so exam dead in the heat when we had the sun a few weeks ago)
The house is your standard timber framed construction method.

I have contacted the house builder for investigations, and am waiting to hear back due to the weekend, and was thinking about getting in a structural engineer to survey it for me as it could be subsidence. I've looked at a few of the properties around mine and all seem to be fine.

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

[Bowsey1021]

Here are some pictures, one of the front, one of the rear of the house.

[New Home Expert]

This is potentially serious as the actual brick has a crack through it not just mortar.
It is almost certainly due to movement.
The location of the cracks also does not bode well.
Report it to the NHBC as soon as possible sending them your photos!

[Bowsey1021]

Thanks, I have reported this to the house builder, as I'm only a year into my builders Warranty & have firmly stated I will go to the NHBC if I do not get a swift response, or if they don't even acknowledge my email in the next few days.

I have also contacted a third party structural engineer to get a quote to investigate if I don't get a good enough response

[New Home Expert]

You should have to pay for your own engineer!
That is unless the NHBC and Persimmon both either do nothing or try to claim its "normal".
I wouldn't trust Persimmon not to try and just replace the bricks, rather than the expensive issue of sorting out the cause!
Make sure you copy the NHBC in on this.
They will probably attached tell-tails (glass strips) across the cracks to see if they break indicating further movement.

[Bowsey1021]

Thanks, I just wanted to get a cost from a few third parties so if I did not get any joy from Persimmon or the NHBC then I could go threaten to get a third party report to report back what the issue is.
My expectation is for them to initially say it is a thermal crack, which is ridiculous as it has happened on the two corresponding walls in the same plane (reference line)

Any works they want to do I will ask to be notified beforehand and ask to see the results of any reports they receive.

My expectation is the same as you say that they will fit some glass to the facade to "monitor" the issue.
However adjacent to the side of the house that the cracks have appeared closer to is my driveway which has a surface water drain running through it.
I've never had any issues with flooding or a build up of water but was also thinking if this drain could have partially collapsed leaking water into the ground. As the soil is clay it would just wash away.

Or, due to the poor soil conditions extra deep foundations were installed. (Thank you planning documents, and I think I got it confirmed by builder in writing) so maybe there is an issue there.

[New Home Expert]

Extra deep foundations would be a good thing as the ground bearing strata would not have dried out or got wetter.  But...were the foundations excavated to the correct depths?
The NHBC should have a record of their inspection.
"Poor soil conditions"  = Landfill?  Unless piles were used this may not be good.

I agree, a broken drain pipe, either foul or storm would wash away anything in that area and that is how sink holes are created, not that you have that (yet?)

[PercyMann7]

A lack of movement joints could be your problem-see attachment guidance note for builders.
Note: this is not current.
Your "Structure" is your timber frame, your brickwork is only cladding your structure.
Check other houses on your estate, they may have MJ's already.
Percy.

[New Home Expert]

Why do you think it is timber frame?
There is no horizontal movement joint(gap) under the windows or at soffit level for when the frame shrinks.
There are not any weep vents to ventilate the cavity either side of the fire barriers at first floor or at soffit level either.
Both of these are required.

I agree that brickwork movement joints may have been missed.
The specification you show is the same as the current NHBC Standards. (2016) (6.1 page 2)
I doubt that a movement joint would have prevented the cracking in the second photo so near to the corner of the house.
But as Percy says, it's worth checking other houses on the estate.

[PercyMann7]

"standard timber frame construction" 2nd paragraph on initial post by homeowner.
Percy

[New Home Expert]

Hands up I missed it.
But given that, there will be lots more problems with this home as no allowance at all for ventilation of the cavity and more importantly, shrinkage of the frame structure.