do cracks along home foundation mean failure

17 years ago

We will probably complete purchase of home on re-sale market and put our 25 yr old house up for sale in a couple of months...

I have noticed while doing yard work that the mortar/concrete has started to loosen in several areas on the outside...

for instance...1) on the front porch where the door sill meets the concrete of the porch there is line of concrete or mortar that has cracked and is loose---there are no cracks what so ever in the brick front of the entry--none around the door frame or the top window or sidelights...the door operates smoothly and there are no cracks in the tile in the front entry hall...

2) I noticed today when I was hooking up the water hose to bib on side yard that there where the concrete foundation and the brick meet there is the black vapor barrier or whatever they used back then---some of it has flaked away after all this time so there is just brick and concrete...and there is line/crack horizontally there where brick and concrete meet---but no cracks in brick mortar or vertical/diagonal cracks in concrete foundation...

on that side of the house, we have lots of shade from 2 mature pecan trees shielding a large bed of Asian jasmine, some nandina and a yupon that is about 10 ft tall...

The only interior cracks that I have noticed are one where the drywall tape has separated a little from the sheetrock panels on the ceiling--just two--and they are about 2-3 inches long each...

We have one bedroom door that sticks but there is no crack around the framing in or our of that room....

We had a sprinkler system installed when the house was built and try to water evenly and not overwater---we have had bad drought last couple of years and had to water less frequently but try for longer times to encourage the grass to deepen its root system...

I guess I am afraid that when/if home is purchaed the inspector might say we have foundation problems which will scare away the buyer and be an expense to repair we don't want to do...

We had termites years ago that cause some sheetrock damage before we caught them but that was contained to one room. After the house was treated, they came back once kind of swarming but were treated again...we have Orking transferable policy so I think that will be ok...no wood/wall damage to structure...

Any comments about the foundation---I will post this on building a home as well---that is where I have spent most of my time...

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Comments (4)

brickeyee
17 years ago
"...door sill meets the concrete of the porch..."

Cracks were a porch of any kind attaches to a house often have a crack, and even a gap.
Monolithic pours for foundation and porch supports sometimes last a while.

"...there is line/crack horizontally there where brick and concrete meet..."

A crack here is common also.

Cracks that have shifting of the two sides of the crack may indicate problems, but cracks that are not open or out of plane on each side are not usually significant.
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loves2read
Original Author
17 years ago
thanks brickeyee

that is what I wanted to hear--just don't want to run into a surprise when (hoping we will) sell this house...
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line/crack horizontally there where brick and concrete Which is it? a line, or a crack? This illustrates why a picture would be most helpful. But it doesn't sound like you're describing anything other than natural weathering away of the "dampproofing", which is virtually useless anyway.
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Stucco is not waterproof and will hold moisture and that moisture can travel.It's possible that the moisture has collected on the front part that you described and the moisture is prevelant enough to cause mold and,getting weak, will break down in time and crumble.The water outlet is suspect as well, and i think would be a matter of digging down to search for a possible leak.Some plumbing is run under slab,and by digging down you find that it is protruding out from under the slab,You might have to pull some carpet back to see if your concrete is damp, but your first indication would be that the soil is heavily saturated in the area of the dig and wet even down deeper than the plumbing line.Since you mentioned that it only gets soaked during a drenching rain,i would lower the soil and seal on the one side, and see how that goes as far as drying up is concerned. If it stays wet,Then i would look into that water line by digging down first and inspecting for a leak.Im assuming by water outlet you are talking about a hose bib.If it protrudes through the stucco wall up from the foundation,(usually about 12"),it could be leaking somewhere between the bib and the foundation in the wall itself.I would think that if this was the case however, that you would have some interior damage to your sheetrock as well as the moldy stucco out front.
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loves2read
Original Author
16 years ago
OK
an update to that first question--since I posted it...no extrior cracks in the brick or foundation that I see--this is about sheetrock/drywall tape separating

the tape along one line horizontally across the garage ceiling has started to separate and come loose...

In our kitchen/breakfast room which is connected by short hall to garage, we have a valuted V 18 ft or so ceiling--the breakfast area has 8 narrow regular height windows but the ceiling at its peak goes up the same height as kitchen and has about 6-8 sheetrock panels around the bay--

about 8 years ago we had the popcorn ceilings in the house painted--we noticed a year or so later that one seam join of sheetrock was starting to lift up at the tape a little but thought it was because the paint made the popcorn heavier and got the tape wet and it was just drying out...

but lately another seam across the bay has started to separate a little ...

here in our part of TX we have had terrifically wet spring with sometimes as much as 4 inches of rain in a few hours...we know that that can cause foundation problems...

I have asked my husband if he thinks this means foundation problems but he says no--just old sheetrock and tape...we have no cracks vertically or anything outside the seam tape...
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Jon1270
16 years ago
Separating drywall tape is not likely to be a big deal. My guess is that it was hot the day the drywall was taped and the worker didn't move quite fast enough. If the surface of the mud skins over a bit before the paper tape is applied, it won't bond properly and can easily come loose. This sounds like a minor drywall problem, not a signal pointing to anything else.
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do cracks along home foundation mean failure

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brickeyee

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do cracks along home foundation mean failure

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brickeyee

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