We just looked at the house this morning which looked very nice and had a good floor plan. But when we walked out, we noticed cracks on the foundation and a 45 degree angle crack in the basement unfinished wall. I have attached pictures here. We are totally new to analyzing such cracks and appreciate any inputs on this…
Cracking can result from a variety of problems, including: differential settlement of the foundation; drying shrinkage, expansion and contraction due to ambient thermal and moisture variations; improper support over openings; the corrosion of iron and steel wall reinforcement; differential movement between building materials; expansion of salts; and the bulging or leaning of walls, etc. The list goes on and on.
You could have an active or inactive crack. A lot of factors have to be considered, such as the age of the house, how deep the crack actually is and so on. Moisture and or temperatures can be a deciding factor in determining the cause and the cure. Most homeowners/buyers are not very knowledgeable in this area but home inspectors are trained to spot these defficiencies and report to you what they find through their years of education, hard work, knowledge, and years of experience seeing cracks, such as these.
Who knows? You may have settlement issues, such as: sloped floors; and sticking doors and windows.
What area are you from? I believe that you should contact a local InterNACHI inspector. Just my two cents.
Maybe I’m wrong but it appears that you are trying to buy a house without having a thorough home inspection by a professional. Trying to save a few bucks is going to cost you thousands.
None of us here have a problem with discussing cracks in a foundation. It would be nice to know your location and refer you to a professional. I am very confident in saying that you missed more than these cracks. I would have caught them on my first pass examining the exterior.
I live in Colorado (around denver area). This house was built on 1989. What I heard from my realtor was the people who owned this house from 1998 to 2011 did not maintain it properly and had a very poor drainage system. The owners who bought the house on 2011 had to fix the drainage system on one side of the house (the other side of the house looks good with no cracks). So I assume these cracks are because of the poor drainage over the period of time (not completely sure though).
I just scheduled an appointment with an Inspector. Hopefully he finds out whats wrong. This is gonna be our first house, so if the inspector says there is a bit of concern, I am walking out of the contract (don’t want to spend thousands of $ later).
Seller supposedly had a poor drainage system…and had to fix the drainage system on one side of the house…??? :-k
What does the realtor/whoever consider a … drainage system?
The grade? Longer downspouts?
Or was there some-sort of INTERIOR drainage system that was previously installed?