I live in Mississippi and this year we have had extremely unseasonably cold weather, as much of the nation has. In addition to being very cold it has also fluctuated from really humid, warm days to extremely dry, cold days. Our home is 4 years old and was built on a slab with wire in it. It has a rafter style Dutch hip roof. It was built on a hill that had red clay just under the topsoil and was graded down to red dirt before the foundation was laid. Now to my questions...

During this winter, we have started to notice quite a few cracks in our crown molding. They are all in one of three places: either at joints, against the ceiling or at the bottom of the crown against the wall. None are large cracks, but more seem to be forming as time goes on. In addition, we have built ins on either side of our fireplace in the living room. There is a crack where it appears that the side of one built in has separated from the wall to the side of that built in. And, in the kitchen, one of the corner cabinets has a crack where it has separated from the wall as well.

I have climbed up in the attic and all ceiling joists and rafters look fine. There are no cracks in the drywall, other than some hairlines in the bottom of a couple corners There are NO cracks in the indoor foundation. We have stained concrete so they would be noticeable. I have found three cracks in the brick...all at the top...above windows...outside the house. Other than the cracks in the trim, molding and the brick, there seems to be no evidence of movement in the house. So, should I be concerned about these or just chalk it up to the crazy weather we're having?

By the way, I had my dad, who has experience in construction, look at it and he said I could have some movement but wasn't sure. I had the original architect/builder come look and he said there is definitely no movement, but blamed the weather. If it helps, I could post pics. Thanks for any help or opinions!

 

Welcome to the forums Wayne!

Crown molding is some of the hardest woodwork in a house to get a lasting caulk job - mainly because it's often not nailed as tight/securely as it ought to be. I'd cut out the old caulk and recaulk. Be sure to use a quality caulk. A siliconized acrylic latex caulk [it's paintable] would be bare minimum.

The cracks in the brick may be related to the weather but it's also possible they have been there for awhile but didn't get noticed until you started looking