I would appreciate your professional opinions on whether this is a problem, or just the result of the house settling. As you can see in the picture, this crack extends from one corner of the master bathroom door. This door is perpendicular to the outside wall (but the cracked side is not against the outside wall). The crack does not extend to the ceiling. The door will not close properly. The house was built in 1963, slab foundation. No other similar cracks near any other door in the house. What do you all think?
Very hard to ascertain much from a small closeup picture.
Are the floors sloping?
How bad is the door out of alignment?
Does the door rub on the top on the latch side (which I assume is the crack side by the pic, if not say so.)?
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This isn’t an “either/or.” The house settling can definitely be a problem. We’re there to determine if the house is performing as intended and, IMO, it fails that test. All that being said I don’t usually recommended a team of a dozen structural engineers evaluate the house.
I’d probably cite the crack and the door not closing and recommend a contractor repair the door to function properly and ensure stability of the slab and support in the area.
I know full well it’s not easily possible to “ensure stability of the slab…” but we have to do something to protect ourselves. For a few hundred dollars we just can’t take on the liability that comes with the downside of settlement, etc.
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The home is 61+ years old. Typical “new home” settleing should have ended 50+ years ago!
Obviously, something has changed, and it’s not in your purview to figure it out.
Refer it out to as qualified Contractor or SE.
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Where are you located?
The diagonal crack indicates some part of the house has moved. One crack alone may be a minor issue or it may be the first sign of more to come.
I would typically perform a floor level survey if a visual inspection alone couldn’t find the source of the movement.
Start by looking at the floor framing under the door and follow the joists to the support beam and/or foundation wall.
The crack is just one puzzle piece, which isn’t enough to see the whole picture.
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FYI…
In that case the crack pattern in the exposed foundation and in the floor slab combined with the floor level survey is your most reliable way of finding the source of the movement.
I presumed that Anita Deyadey2Non-Member Guest was not an inspector. 
And, yes, as I questioned, looking at whether the floors slope is important.
From this information, I see nothing that indicates anything significant enough to lose sleep over.
Wall Cracks are small. No lateral movement.
Door cracks are small and the same width from end to end. 45 degree cuts get really wide at one end from very little movement.
The door is only connected to the walls at about eight locations. There is a space between the wall and the door frame. But caulking and paint tell us a story one way or the other.
Why won’t the door close? Lock-set alignment issue happens with movement from hundredths of an inch. Door frame to door alignment happens in a 1/4 in. Both are within the expected wood shrinkage when the house was first built.
Slab foundation; generally used based on soil conditions. Sandy soil in Fla are slab. Swampy soil in Louisiana, slab. We have raised foundations and basements (so long as one side is above grade) (needs to be on a hill). New England has full basements. The slab has more contact with the soil and the soil is generally less stable, so a higher likelihood of movement is expected. Where are you?
Only one door was effected. The rest of the house is fine?
Types of cracks; there are ones wider at one end. There are cracks with lateral movement. Direction of the crack, diagonal, horizontal or vertical speak volumes.
1963 was a long time ago. Alleged climate change, geotechnical changes have occurred. Wind, rain, earthquakes, have all occurred during this period.
So based on one little picture, I would say this is from building material shrinkage.
If you have a bunch of money, and it will help you sleep better, hire an engineer to tell you these same things.
When I first started doing Home Inspections, as a favor for a friend in Real Estate doing corporate relocation transactions, I always had a Structural Engineer inspecting in front of me. Eventually, I stopped seeing him, and it was only me. One day I inspected a house for a former client. I asked them why they didn’t buy the 53,000 sf house, in the hills just south of Nashville, Tn, that they were in love with. “Didn’t you hear? They had to Jack the whole hose up to repair the foundation because of your report, and the Engineer didn’t even address it!”. Actually, I saw something different to me, and I discussed it with the Engineer as he was backing out of the driveway.
So, everyone has an opinion. Some cost more than others. Some will be correct and some will be not so correct. I’m not a Structural Engineer, but one day I went back to an inspection site where I found a collapsing foundation and sat there all day while they dug it all up. They unearthed eight reasons why the wall was collapsing, all which had indicators above grade. I don’t have that diploma hanging on the wall, but I have experienced and observed things since I fell off my first new construction house when I was seven years old, and knocked myself out.
Best of luck.
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The floor does slope a little towards the outside wall. The bubble in my level is slightly askew. The gap in the door is 3/4 inch. The door is getting caught in the middle, so neither the latch nor hinge side. Yes, the latch is on the side with the crack.
Maryland, not far from Washington, D.C.
IMO **Simple, minor door frame crack."
Severe cracks, witch this defect is not by appearance, may indicate foundation issues, requiring more extensive repairs.
I have said this over and over again! * Regulate Interior Conditions – Maintain a temperature in your home that prevents vast temperature swings, which minimizes the stress on your home’s structure.
Not trying to be funny but if this is drywall; is it possible that someone had a heated argument and slammed the door too hard?
Typically, you look for damage aliangment. Door knob indentation marks, Missing door stops.
Bathroom says it all for shifting tempture relativehumidty readings.
Observervation: Drywalll Crack wandering 90% degrees and 8" inches inwards towards the ceiling. Door does not sit right i the frame.
1: Recommend a licensed general contractor to repair all issues.
I have the same cracks in one area of my 60-year-old home. Just keep an eye on it. if anything crazy happens, you will know it.
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Yeah, OP, if this is a house you own I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. Realize we’re all inspectors called in at the moment of purchase and everyone is trying to shake an answer out of us to an impossible question - When is it going to be a problem?
We all have to REALLY hedge our bets and often paint a worse-case scenario. I completely agree with Brian… keep an eye on it.
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If you are an inspector, you must realize how little information this additional information gives us to go along with the small up close picture, without being there.
If you are a homeowner looking for peace, don’t worry about it. Patch it up, paint it and, as my colleagues said, keep an eye on it.
Whatever stresses caused the crack are pretty minimal because the crack does not extend to the ceiling. A 3/4" gap in the door reveal is hugemongus. Fixing that will likely mean removing and re-hanging the door and frame.
All houses settle. Settling is under that general umbrella term of “structural.” But not all settling requires some remedial action. Based on your description and photo, it seems that cosmetic repairs are all that is needed.
Anita,
Based on the floor sloping info, you should do a structural assessment which includes measuring the home to determine if the settlement is isolated or if it has affected the entire foundation.
I do these types of assessments for the engineering company that I work for, and the only way to know for sure what is going on and how serious it may be, is to measure the structure.
I’m based in Annapolis but we service DC and surrounding areas, so if you want to get this done, let me know and we can set something up in our schedule.
You can contact me here:
Ryan Schmidt
Broadneck Home Inspections
443-254-3072
Broadneckhomeinsp@gmail.com