Horazontal Foundation crack

Jon mackay · 05-17-2010, 06:12 AM

I'm not sure what to recommend here. This house is 1960's construction.

There has been an addition of a rear 2 story porch with a stone floor at the 2nd floor. The patio that it is resting on has a very large settlement crack and the structure framing is improper for the load.

Now at the main house, there are corner cracks at both rear foundation areas and on horizontal crack at the left side. I was thinking that this could all be a result of this porch not having proper footers and has pulled down the rear portion of the house. Very unusual cracks at the rear shingles too see thread http://www.inspectionnews.net/home_i...-shingles.html

I was going to call for a concrete foundation specialist to check out the foundation and also to have a contractor support install more adequate support at the porch but I was looking to get some additional opinions.

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**John Arnold** · 05-17-2010, 06:36 AM

Unless you are a structural engineer, I wouldn't make any recommendations in the way of structural repairs or remedies. I would simply describe the problems I'm seeing and defer to a SE.

**Ken Amelin** · 05-17-2010, 06:42 AM

It goes without saying that a structural engineer is recommended, but I've also seen this corner defect on quite a few structures. Does anyone know what might cause this type of corner failure?

Jon mackay · 05-17-2010, 06:55 AM

It almost seems like the top rear foundation wall has moved slightly to the rear causing the corners to crack and also the horizontal crack.

If you take the load of that porch structure into consideration, the large crack at the patio, and also add the fact that the shingles have this odd crack pattern, it would seem that the entire rear has shifted.

I am calling for a structural engineer for full evaluation.

**Steve Frederickson** · 05-17-2010, 01:58 PM

The crack in the upper corner of the foundation is a pretty common crack, usually caused by brick expansion combined with concrete shrinkage. The brick actually expands beyond the face of the foundation, and pulls the corner of the concrete with it. However, with everything else going on, definitely defer this to a P.E.

Jon mackay · 05-21-2010, 05:52 AM

I was told that the horizontal crack was from a separate pour. Does that sound right?

**Matt Fellman** · 05-21-2010, 09:52 AM

I never get too involved in the specifics of why it is or the design to fix it. State what you see, tell them what to do and move on. Everything else you say increases the chances of buying it.