Subsidence, settlement and heave
A crack is wider at the skirting and closes before it reaches the ceiling. Why should that shape not be copied out as roof spread?
Because that taper is the opposite of the roof-spread pattern. A crack wider at the skirting that closes before the ceiling opens at the bottom and pinches out above. Roof spread is associated with cracks that open at the top, where rafters push the wall head out. The survey has recorded a bottom-heavy crack. It has not recorded roof spread, and it has not measured the rafters. Copying this shape out as roof spread swaps the taper. The note does not support that heading, and the inspection has not made the measurement spread would need.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
People learn one crack diagram and paste it onto the next house. The diagram for thrust at the eaves is wide at the top. The diagram in this report is wide at the skirting, which is the pattern more often linked with downward movement or with a local failure low in the wall. Neither diagram is a proof by itself. What matters is not using the wrong one.
Ask the surveyor to confirm the crack is wider at the skirting and was not described as roof spread. Keep roof questions for a crack, or a roof, that actually points that way. Tell the solicitor and any insurer the words that match this taper, and do not add spread. If someone is worried about the foundations, that is a separate question about this low-wide crack, still without a measurement the survey did not take.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Is this crack wider at the skirting than at the ceiling?
- Did you describe roof spread anywhere for this crack?
- Were the rafters measured, or is spread simply not in the note?
What are the typical next steps?
- Keep the taper as wider at the skirting.
- Do not copy that shape out as roof spread.
- Leave any roof-spread question for a pattern that actually fits it.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If the eaves look uneven, can you add roof spread?
Not from this crack. Uneven eaves would be their own observation, and the survey did not measure the rafters. A crack that is wider at the skirting is still the wrong shape to relabel as roof spread. Keep the low-wide crack inside the facts the surveyor actually recorded on the day.
Is a low-wide crack automatically subsidence?
No. The shape is a reason not to call it roof spread. It is not, on its own, a subsidence diagnosis. The survey recorded the taper and did not measure foundation movement or put a cause beyond the shape. Anything further about the low-wide crack would be a different visit, not this note.