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Opinions on foundation cracks?

9 years ago

I'm looking at buying a 1950's house that has some significant foundation and floor cracks. See pictures: http://imgur.com/a/iqK43

There are two vertical foundation cracks outside that have been caulked some time ago, and some large cracks on a concrete slab floor in an enclosed porch/garage room.

Are these cracks just old settlement or something serious?

Pics 1-2 are outside the porch room on the foundation where it touches the ground.
Pics 3-17 are the porch/garage room concrete slab floor. Is that structural or just old settlement?
Pic 18 is a corner outside the porch room, just behind a downspout.
Pics 19-22 is another caulked crack at another area of the house on the foundation where it meets the ground.

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Comments (2)

User
9 years ago
The only opinion that counts is the one that you get from the structural engineer that you hire to inspect the home. Ask for additional time for the inspection period, and call the engineer, as well as several contractors post the engineer's inspection to give you a quote on what he tells you need to happen.
PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
9 years ago
Those cracks look topical, not structural, in nature, from what one can discern from pictures.

Is the house level? Floors? It's having been there 60 years says quite a bit.
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These are settlement cracks of no significance. The performance guidelines I build under require no repairs to any cracks in concrete floors or poured foundation walls that are less than 6 mm. (See link below, pp.24-28.) Were the wall cracks wider, the standard repair would be epoxy injection. Epoxy injection used to repair minor cracks in new home foundation. Photo: Heather Joy Investments Here is a link that might be useful: Construction Performance Guidelines
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I'm sorry, I missed your reply. :-( We live in north central Texas-- expansive clay soil, water foundations to keep slab from cracking, the soil can go from drought to waterlogged and back in days.
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Concrete cracks. Usually relief cuts are put in to focus the cracking down in the cuts. if you are planning on other flooring you are likely okay. As long as the cracks don’t open up you are fine. Can’t see / comment on the vertical ones which may be more problematic
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Agree, concrete will crack. However, those have opened up quite a bit. The drywall is a relatively easy fix and they do this all the time. Stupid, but that's construction. Go outside and examine your slab all around and see if you see any cracking. Not saying you have big problem, but that is more than just a crack in my opinion. Seen a lot of slabs and never seen that much of a crack. As a minimum, some repair should probably be done before flooring is put down. Maybe you can get a flooring specialist over and get their opinion. Not as threating. Track builders business model is to build the same thing over and over as fast as possible. No such thing as "luxury" track builder. That's just marketing. Sorry. Try to get a resolution not go to lawyer. Lawyer's make money, you won't. Sorry. Just experience talking here.
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