Help Please - Cracks Showing up everywhere!

[PW392781]

I'm getting extremely worried - for the past 3 months, I've noticed cracks on both my ceilings and walls on my main floor. They started with cracks along my bedroom ceiling that follows the joist lines in my attic. Didn't think nothing at first, but then they started popping up in all 4 bedrooms. Last week, they started on the main floor and then cracks showed up in the walls and above windows. The house is 42 years old and was concerned with settlement issues as these were consistent with what I found online. Upon looking everywhere in my house, I also noticed that my main hallway now has a 1/4 inch gap from between my ceramic tiles and the baseboard. I had 4 foundation experts come to the house and because they didn't see any cracks in my outside foundation or in my bricks, they don't think I have any foundation/structural issues. Is it possible that my main floor is giving way and then everything above it is shifting? I am writing this at 4:30 in the morning and it's been like this for the past two weeks...I can't sleep and it's started to really affect my daily life....Has anyone encountered anything like this? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Steve123]

House is 42 years old. Stuff happens.
Lots of Youtube videos on how to fix cracks in plaster. I would probably go with paper tape and setting compound.
Shoe molding on the baseboard.
I expect the ceiling is not really cracks, just the joists have shrunk, or maybe pulled the moisture out of the plaster, and now you have scallops (waves) on the ceiling, on 16" centers. A pro would skim coat the whole ceiling. Myself, I have just put pre-mixed compound in the low spots -- that's a lot of feathering out (it won't be perfect on the first pass, or the second, possibly not on the third pass).

I think you are really making too much of this. I can only tell you old houses require lots of maintenance and repairs. What you list is common. Baseboard was always like that - you just didn't notice. But hold tight -- everybody has an opinion -- if you get enough replies to your post, sooner or later somebody going to tell you your house is falling down.