Advice for foundation crack repairs.

[JC Warner]

Hello my friends,
Whilst making some needed repairs in my own crawlspace, I noticed 3 narrow (<1/4") verticle cracks in the poured foundation. I live in snow and earthquake country and will be putting my house up for sale this summer. I want to fill those cracks and am wondering what the latest and greatest product ( and easy) is out there.
I was just reading about Flexomeric epoxy, which sounded pretty good.
Any thoughts? Recommendations?
Thank you!

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[Mark Reinmiller]

Depends upon why you are filling them. Cracks close to 1/4" are not narrow. If water is an issue, then polyurethane caulk, or injection (better) are good. For structural repairs epoxy injection is generally recommended.

OTOH, if you are just doing this to sell the house, I would not recommend patching them. It can look like you are hiding a problem, and is makes evaluation of the cracks impossible if someone wants a structural engineer to look at them. I am not in a seismic area, so I don't know if that is a concern.

[Raymond Wand]

Many crack repairs are now done using polyurethane for the simple reason it remains pliable whereas epoxy is sometimes to hard and can crack again. Of course the other option is to have it repaired from outside if accessible by patching, water proofing compound, dimpled membrane down to weepers.

Was there any lateral or vertical offset of the crack? if so it may warrant examination by an engineer. Of course this might be something you wish to have assessed by an engineer prior to listing.

[JC Warner]

Thank you Mark and Raymond.

The cracks are just vertical, no lateral movement or anything. I can only access them from the crawlspace due to exterior cladding , etc.

My reason for patching them is simply from a home maintenance standpoint, getting things done around here. Since we have an active earthquake fault nearby ( we had a 6.8 in '92) I will look for something that remains pliable.

Thanks again!