Wall/Slab Cracks

[Vince Santos]

Saw three cracks during today's inspection. One of the cracks on the south wall was patched, extended down to the slab and stopped at the north wall. The north wall had a crack approximately 1/8" wide and while it extended down to the slab it was hairline for the at the bottom two feet. I'm not sure why the first crack would have been patched and not the second unless the second crack happened after the fact.

I did not observe any wall crack or doors that did not line up with the frames and these crack tested dry. I'm leaning toward the following recommendation.
Moderate cracks (1/8 inch to 3/4 inch) and/or leaning were found in the foundation. This may be a structural concern, or an indication that settlement is ongoing. The client should consider hiring qualified contractors and/or engineers as necessary for further evaluation. Such contractors may include:

Foundation repair contractors who may prescribe repairs, and will give cost estimates for prescribed repairs
Masonry contractors who repair and/or replace brick veneer
Geotechnical engineers who attempt to determine if settlement is ongoing, and what the cause of the settlement is
Structural engineers who determine if repairs are necessary, and prescribe those repairs

At a minimum, recommend sealing cracks to prevent water infiltration. Numerous products exist to seal such cracks including hydraulic cement, resilient caulks and epoxy sealants.

I'm curious as to what some of you would recommend concerning this defect.

[Russel Ray]

Originally Posted by vsantos

Saw three cracks during today's inspection. One of the cracks on the south wall was patched, extended down to the slab and stopped at the north wall. The north wall had a crack approximately 1/8" wide and while it extended down to the slab it was hairline for the at the bottom two feet. I'm not sure why the first crack would have been patched and not the second unless the second crack happened after the fact.

I did not observe any wall crack or doors that did not line up with the frames and these crack tested dry. I'm leaning toward the following recommendation.
Moderate cracks (1/8 inch to 3/4 inch) and/or leaning were found in the foundation. This may be a structural concern, or an indication that settlement is ongoing. The client should consider hiring qualified contractors and/or engineers as necessary for further evaluation. Such contractors may include:

Foundation repair contractors who may prescribe repairs, and will give cost estimates for prescribed repairs
Masonry contractors who repair and/or replace brick veneer
Geotechnical engineers who attempt to determine if settlement is ongoing, and what the cause of the settlement is
Structural engineers who determine if repairs are necessary, and prescribe those repairs

At a minimum, recommend sealing cracks to prevent water infiltration. Numerous products exist to seal such cracks including hydraulic cement, resilient caulks and epoxy sealants.

I'm curious as to what some of you would recommend concerning this defect.

I'm not following your thought processes there. Where did you come up with "and/or leaning"? You recommend that the "client should consider hiring qualified contractors and/or engineers as necessary for further evaluation," but then you backtrack by stating, "At a minimum, recommend sealing cracks". I think your Client is going to be confused.

I think that "At a minimum, recommend sealing cracks" is not an appropriate recommendation for a foundation and/or wall that is "leaning." However, I still don't know how you arrived at "leaning."

[dchew]

Your text sounds like you're recommending that your client retain the services of 3 or 4 different professions. I definitely would not recommend the "masonary contractor" by your own description since he only repairs brick veneers.

I would recommend that you defer to a licensed qualified foundation contractor and/or structural engineer. They in turn, may recommend the services of soils engineer.

[jlybolt]

Be careful in who you recommend. You may have to end up eating the bill.

I would use-

- Signs of structural movement noted, suggest that an expert in this field be consulted for further evaluation of the structure and to provide suggestions as to what, if any, corrective actions should be taken.

your job is to observe and report

[Vince Santos]

Sorry about that. I did a copy and paste from my report info. I always edit the descriptions and get rid of the irrelevent information.

[Robert J. OConnor]

Having one crack patched and then another one that's not is suspicious.

Originally Posted by vsantos

Moderate cracks (1/8 inch to 3/4 inch) ...

WOW ... a 3/4" crack is "moderate" ... holy cra_ batman ... perhaps you meant 1/8" to 1/4" ...

JMO

[Vince Santos]

Originally Posted by roconnor

Having one crack patched and then another one that's not is suspicious.


WOW ... a 3/4" crack is "moderate" ... holy cra_ batman ... perhaps you meant 1/8" to 1/4" ...

JMO

Nothing that wide. The cut and paste included several references that did not pertain to the issue, as I stated. I measured the crack at what l thought was the widest point which was 1/8".

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

That looks like a big crack. The angle and severety remind me of what we see around here from differential settlement. Unless it were real obvious, and it doesn't seem to be, I'd recommend a structural engineer with all that cracking going on.