Foundation - should I be worried

[Andrew James]

I had a home built and we moved in almost a year ago. The home has been filled with poorly done workmanship. I thought I would take a look at the foundation and found that their are some cracks. Most seemed fine but the ones I am worried about are above the rough cutouts for the downstairs windows. Three of the 5 windows in the basement have cracks that start in the top corners of the window cutout and go upward to the top of the foundation wall, about 16 inches in length.

Is this something I should be worried about? It seems like a fragile area of the foundation for which there should be some reinforcement. Any thoughts?

[Garry Blankenship]

You can worry, as much as you like. For a definitive answer hire a structural engineer. If the work is as poor as you suspect and it was permitted, inspected and approved, you may have redress against the permiting entity or possibly the builder. By training standards, Home Inspectors are licensed to note a concern and defer causes and/or repairs to licensed professionals. Photos might help, but non-compliant footings, settlement, poor concrete mix, inadequate reinforcement in the concrete, incorrect distribution of loads are few of possible causes that come to mind.

[Garry Sorrells]

Andrew,
"I had a home built and we moved in almost a year ago. The home has been filled with poorly done workmanship."

You point out why it is important that a buyer of a home to be built have someone on site during construction to protect their interests. That person and their ability to stop work would have to be in the original contract with the builder

As Garry B. suggested, get a structural engineer and give him the plans that the home.
Workmanship is a relative term and varies from person to person with their own standards.
Poorly done is different than incorrectly done. S.E. can give yo the answers in definitive terms. Spend the money and get the answers.