Building Cracks - Causes and Measures

1. PROJECT REPORT ON –
BUILDING CRACKS – CAUSES AND
MEASURES
Submitted By-
Akash Upadhyay

2. BUILDING
ANY IDEA???
A building is a man-made structure with
a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one
place. Buildings come in a wide amount of shapes and
functions, and have been adapted throughout history for a
wide number of factors, from building materials available, to
weather conditions, to land prices, ground conditions,
specific uses and aesthetic reasons.

3. TYPES OF BUILDINGS
Building
Residential
Multi-storey

4. IS THAT CRACK
SERIOUS???
 Simplest question to be asked.
 One of the most hard question to
answer.

5. BUILDING CRACKS
TODAYS TOPIC
A building component develops cracks whenever
stress in the component exceeds its strength. Stress in
a building component could be caused by externally
applied forces, such as dead, live, wind or seismic
loads, or foundation settlement or it could be induced
internally due to thermal variations, moisture changes,
chemical action, etc.

6. TYPES OF CRACKS…
Structural
• Incorrect design
• Overloading
• Faulty construction
Non-Structural
• Internal induced
stress in building
material

7. CLASSIFICATION OF CRACKS
(Based on width)
TYPE WIDTH
Thin < 1 mm
Medium 1-2 mm
Wide > 2 mm

8. MAJOR CAUSES
 Moisture change
 Thermal vibration
 Elastic deformation
 Chemical reaction
 Foundation movement
 Vegetation

9.  Moisture Change - Most of the building materials
having pores in their mortar, burnt clay bricks,
some stones, timber, etc. expand on absorbing
moisture and shrink on drying.
 Thermal vibration - It is a well known
phenomenon of science that all materials, more or
less, expand on heating and contract on cooling.
Magnitude of movement, however, varies for
different materials depending on their molecular
structure and other properties.
 Vegetation - Existence of vegetation, such as
fast growing trees in the vicinity of compound
walls can sometimes cause cracks in walls due
to expansive action of roots growing under the

11. MEASURES TO BE TAKEN
• Proper construction
• Avoiding use of rich cement mortar in
masonry
•Timely repair
• Avoiding use of rich cement mortar
• Avoid bricks containing too much
soluble sulphates

12. PRESENT TENDS
 Modern Structure –
i) Tall, thin walls
ii) Designed for higher stress
iii) Constructed at faster pace
iv) More crack prone

13. ANY
QUESTIONS…
THANK YOU…