Found a crack in our foundation on Thanksgiving Day

[rapaint66]

I discovered a gift on Thanksgiving Day. Apparently there has been a shift in the foundation of our home. We just purchased it 2 years ago and the inspection did not find any issues with the foundation. The house is roughly 13 years old. It was most likely not there or had not shifted because the evidence found today is staggering. The house is on a cement foundation and it appears that the back 3rd of the house has dropped. Not sure how far. I am not an expert so has anybody had any experience with this and who can be trusted in the Baton Rouge area to provide advice/estimates/repairs?

 

[Golden-Eagle]

Check your paperwork. You might have a Home Warranty. The foundation might be covered even past one year.

 

[Nail Gun]

There is most likely nothing to be concerned about. The ground settles under the weight of the house and slab. I'm not aware of any slab out there without any cracking, mine included. If the ground is heavily built up on old swampy area you may need to be concerned. As long as any unilities running throught the slab aren't immediately compromised you should be fine.

Can you guestimate how wide the crack is at the top?

 

[rapaint66]

I hope you guys are right. The crack at the top where the brick meets the eve is 1/8" to 1/4" wide and runs down my daughter's bedroom window to the slab. There is a visible crack in the slab but it has not opened up any...yet. I took pictures tonight so that if it changes with the rain we are supposed to get tonight we might get a clue as to what is causing it. The wood floor in the hall has separated at the seems around 1/8" and the tile floor in my daughters room is cracked about 1/16" all the way across. There is a visible crack in the sheetrock on the ceiling in the hall as well. We did not have an earthquake did we?

 

[CrkdLtr]

I hope you guys are right. The crack at the top where the brick meets the eve is 1/8" to 1/4" wide and runs down my daughter's bedroom window to the slab. There is a visible crack in the slab but it has not opened up any...yet. I took pictures tonight so that if it changes with the rain we are supposed to get tonight we might get a clue as to what is causing it. The wood floor in the hall has separated at the seems around 1/8" and the tile floor in my daughters room is cracked about 1/16" all the way across. There is a visible crack in the sheetrock on the ceiling in the hall as well. We did not have an earthquake did we?

Funny you mention that. There is a fault line up here in Baton Rouge where the old Woodlawn High School (now Woodlawn Middle School) was built on. Even if there were earth quakes we wouldn't feel them since it's all wetland/former wetland.

 

[rapaint66]

If there is a bright spot in all of this, there are no utilities on the back end of the home as far as I can tell so no immediate danger of catastrophe we hope...

 

[shoalsfugro]

Is there a gutter dumping near the area? ground not properly draining can cause this problem. Could it be storm damage that went unnoticed?

 

[LACamper]

Sometimes they can patch those with an epoxy...

 

[rapaint66]

No gutters on that end of the house. Gonna keep an eye on it for a few weeks. Hopefully we can just repair the cracks, internal and external, and not worry too much about it. Not planning on selling or moving so hopefully we can just live with it.

 

[my-rifle]

Sometimes they can patch those with an epoxy...

Or duct tape.

Here, hold my beer.

 

[rapaint66]

BTT..soliciting additional input

 

[LACamper]

There's a concrete contractor from Slidell advertising on board. Send him a PM...

also... post a question on both of these and you'll get some responses from contractors.

http://concrete.com/Forum/

http://www.decorativeconcreteforums.com/index.php

 

[Nail Gun]

If you look at houses in old Metairie and Kenner you'll notice that is very common on older houses. Perhaps your house is too new to have that amount of movement. If it's pulling apart the flooring and sheetrock you may want to have a shoring company look at it. At the very least you'll know what you're looking at.

 

[Praesul Presul]

Mine has several cracks and nothing noticable. Actually bought it with a crack. Had WCK Foundation look at it prior to me buying it and I like his no BS persona. 262-1588 He didn't do any work for me though as I left it.

 

[Gus McCrae]

duct tape.

Excellent advice.

 

[Saftman]

When we had the home inspection done on the house we live in now there was a crack on the east wall due to foundation settling (from the drought the area had been thru). Part of the deal was the owner put the money in an escrow account to cover the cost of repairs. Ended up drilling 17 10" holes about 10' deep along the east & north sides of the house. Filled with about 8' of concrete and then steel beams were used to raise the slab & level it. Total cost was $8000.00. No problems in 6 years.