Our house is about 18 years old, and we bought it 6 years ago. We had our home inspected before buying, and everything passed. Shortly after buying, we noticed some cracks under a couple of windows, and a small crack on the concrete base. Thing is, we can’t recall if these cracks were there during the home inspection, or if they’ve been there for the past 4 or 5 years.
We filled the cracks in a few years ago, as they run in a stair step fashion within the mortar only - none of the bricks themselves are cracked, and we’ve never had any water problems. We didn’t really think too much of it until we saw the smaller crack about the basement window as well:
The cracks = movement, but the amount of movement is the real question. What was the size of the cracking and was it uniform or was it greater at one end?
The cracking was a about the size of the mortar, maybe a little smaller. From what I can recall, it was uniform.
No, it has remained the same. The crack on the concrete below is new though. And yeah. we filled it ourselves, which is why the colour doesn’t match. :oops:
If they haven’t opened I wouldn’t immediately be concerned, but I would definately monitor them over the next year(and into the future) for any change in size or displacement.
I would not be to concerned. Small vertical cracks are common especially around windows. If you notice the cracks are in the most narrow area of the wall. I would call that mortar shrinkage. If they were horizontal then there would be a concern with foundation. I would repair them and moniter them.