Are you keeping your humidity at a good level, year around. Those look like cracks that occur when you house is very dry. The bottom one of a door. Those panels are meant to float in the frames, so if they were caulked, they couldnt float, and they have expanded.

Photos 1 & 3 are normal seasonal movement in two pieces of wood. Adding more paint is pointless.

Photo #2 appears to be a drywall crack at the corner of an opening. Likely cause is the house settling.

I don't see anything that is the fault of the paint or the painter.

I guess what I don’t understand is I lived in this house for three years before painting it. And it never had these cracks before we did. So why now would that happen?

I do think they keep caulking and painting and caulking and painting…

You need a whole home humidifier. Your house is too dry. And those panels should not have been caulked. Or painted.

Central humidifiers can cause more problems than they solve, e.g. mold growth.

^ Urban myth. You cannot get mold growth at 40% winter humidity in a home. But you can get all kinds of severe wood movement at a super dry 15%. And dry and uncomfortable skin too.

I asked my painter about a humidifier and he said it wasn’t necessary. That this was all about the house settling. But the cracks are constant. Should I want until summer to have them fixed? And then get a humidifier for the winter?

Also, if you don’t paint or caulk the doors, what should they have done?

Also, it wasn’t this bad before it all got painted. So while I’d like to think a humidifier would solve the issue I’m not sure?!

@User I know you are extremely well informed, but I was told about the potential for mold issues in the ducts from two HVAC companies as I am experiencing wood movement as well and sought a consultation about installing a central humidifier from the same company that installed a dehumidifer in my crawlspace.

Assuming this is recent construction??

No, built in 1991. We did some minor renovations and repainted.

I guess what I don’t understand is I lived in this house for three years before painting it. And it never had these cracks before we did. So why now would that happen?

"Before painting it"....Do you mean repainting it or do you mean painting over natural or stained wood that was clear finished?

@taliaferro,

While the OP's problem is likely to be the result of low indoor relative humidity, prescribing a humidifier can indeed produce unintended consequences. My concern would be the potential for condensation in the exterior wall assembly. Assessing that risk would be affected by how and how much the walls are insulated and the seasonal low outdoor air temperature--none of which we know at this point.

@ci_lantro Repainted...not painting over natural or stained wood.

If you have clay soil and an exceptionally dry summer you will see foundation movement no matter the age of the house.

Repainted...not painting over natural or stained wood.

Then what seems to be more cracking with the new paint job may be due to the time of year when the painting was done. You said that the latest paint job was done in the summer when humidity levels are presumably higher than during the heating season.

This is what happens with my wood frame & panel front door in the winter:

I painted the door in the summer months in central Wisconsin where we have muggy springs, summers and generally rainy fall months. Given our winter climate, it just is not possible to repaint a front door when the humidity falls in winter.. The interior side looks fine since it is stained & clear finished. The oil-based stain was able to creep into the joint; although the wood does expand & contract seasonally, the movement isn't nearly as obvious on the interior.

@ci_lantro Thank you for sharing. The painting was done in late August with the AC running. But we live in the NE so I'm sure there were higher levels of humidity. However, it was touched up recently (during winter) and those same areas are cracking again.

Is your house on clay soil, if so the foundation needs to be watered on regular basis to keep house movement to the minimum.

House setteling does not result in "tons of cracks" especially in a 31-year-old home.

@Joseph Corlett, LLC So what is the cause then?

Lack of interior climate control or painter error or both.