40 year old home

Specific Inspection Topics Structural Inspections
1

Scenario: 40 year old brick veneer home lakefront home with lots of glass up front. Floors not level, doors not level and settling has occurred. About 1 inch slopping towards the front. Most of the settling is old and looks like it has stopped. There are a couple of cracks in the brick but they have no deflection. Seems to be a uniform settling

I will be remodeling this home in a couple of years and its a fairly extensive remodel job but before I do what would be a good way to ensure its done settling?

the questions:
How can you tell if it has stopped settling?
What can be done to ensure its stopped settling?

Its my house if you haven’t guessed. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Curt

2

Screw glass to the cracks. If it’s still moving, the glass will crack.

3

Curt,

What type soil?
What type foundation?
How’s the grading/guttering/drainage/irrigation?
What type of foundation management program is in place?

Only true way to be certain is to ziplevel http://www.ziplevel.com/ now as a baseline and retest at a later date.

4

Or glue a small piece of wood (tongue depressor comes to mind) to one side of the crack and mark the cracks edges on it. If it moves you can tell. :wink:

5

I am going to try a gage system I saw on Professional equipment. I think it has stopped and all the settling has been done for some time but I want to be sure.

I am going to dig down the side of the foundation and see how far it goes and see where that leads.

Curt

6

Be careful with soil disruption as they may have trenched and chemically treated for termites/WDI.

Breaking the barrier would open you up to a world of hurt. Consult a local pest control specialist for further information, or just tell me to shut-up!

In the event you know all of this.

7

Thanks
I am having it retreated this year…and thanks for reminding me why!

I just need to ensure we are done settling. Big remodel will cost 150K so I really don’t want to have issues after the fact.

Curt

8

Curt, those gauges are accurate and inexpensive. They’ll tell you if two sides of a crack are moving at different rates.

9

Retain the services of a PE and Licensed Architect.

Document the current structural conditions as well as the future conditions (that may develop) thru the renovation process.