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house settling in one cornerFrom: jwbffdm@yahoo.com
Category: Foundations and Basements
Remote Name: 24.58.81.250
Date: 05 Sep 2004
Time: 07:00 PM
CommentsWe have a 5 year old house, and recently discovered several cracks in the foundation walls (12" and 10" block walls). I think that the cracks appeared rather suddenly and am pretty sure that one developed over the summer. Our house is located in a slope, and it seems like the corner in the lowest spot is settling. Two cracks are stair-step cracks through mortar lines, and there are couple of verticel cracks (top a little wider) near the end of the walls. This corner also seems to be a weak corner in design since we have a door from the basement to the outside and two windows around that corner.
I had the foundation inspected by a structural engineer, who suggested to put concrete support underneath the current footing (he is rather an old-fashined engineer, and said that those piers such as Atlas are for big buildings) and said we wouldn't know the exact cause until we excavate the site. He said it is unlikly to be soil related problems, though. The land is very rocky, and it is not a filled area. The structual engineer also indicated a possiblity of water damage from gutter water.
I also had a foundation repair company inspector over, who suggested me to monitor the cracks and provided a rough estimate on installing 6 or so piers after the soil evaluations.
Our builder has examined the site with the architect, and will excavate the site next week to figure out the cause.
Now, my questions:
(i) What should I look for at excavation? I read in your responses that more than 1/4" settlement is kind of abnormal. How do me measure the amount of settling?
(ii) I also read in some situations like subsidance (?), there is no permanent solution. Many foundation repair companies say that they provide permanent solutions, though. Can our problem be solved permanently? Is the only permanent solution to replace the foundation walls?
(iii) If they are loading cracks rather than settling cracks, how do we know and what should we do?
(iv) We were thinking to move in 3-4 years later, and now I am worried about the resale. If we do our best at this point and do not have any reopening cracks for the next 3-4 years, can we be pretty much sure that the house is (almost) free of settlement problems?
(v) To minimize possible troubles and losses in selling, is there something we can get from our builder such as an insurance for this repair?
Thank you very much for reading, and I am looking forward to getting your advice.
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