Comments on: Foundation Problems

by: Sam

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:56:06 +0000

My utility room used to be a garage. At some point it was closed in. The floor of the utility room is the original slab from the old garage. The floor is not even and where the concrete slab intersects the wall (there are no baseboards), water permeates through that part of the wall when it rains. I had a general contractor assess and he thinks a chain wall needs to be added and the foundation built up. But I don’t understand what a chain wall is. Could you explain?

by: homehelp

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:10:01 +0000

I bought my house about 2 years ago. I went into the unfinshed part of the basement about 3 months ago and there are cracks all along the wall. In one place of the wall I can see the sunlight outside. Water was getting in part of the basement but not from the cracks. Before we baught the house and a company came out and put a draining system to the current drain. No water gets in but I want to build a deck. I had a guy tell me to have someone come out and look at it. How do I know that the contractor does not make it sound worse than it is? All of the cracks are on the seam of the blocks except for one. I was told that if the block is cracked in the middle it is because of stress and I should be worried about it. What do I do?

by: Ben Erickson

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:02:41 +0000

Samantha,
Without a doubt, your offer should be substantially reduced due to the foundation damage, but make sure your offer is contingent on an inspection, and have an inspector or engineer examine the problems throughly before going ahead. It would also be a good idea to get several estimates on repairing the damage before signing off on the house. Structural foundation problems can be very costly to repair, and might not even be fixable.

by: Samantha Provost

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:38:12 +0000

I am looking into buy buying a foreclosure. It is a nice brick home in a nice community, the problem is that it has major foundation issues. There is a crack about two feet at the corner of a bedroom in the cement floor. The brick fireplace has a crack that actually broke through the brick instead of following the morter(?) lines. Also, about a foot off the bottom of the house on the outside brick is a crack that runs from the patio door to the end of the house! Because it is a foreclosure and has been on the market a long time, not to mention the extensibe problems with the foundation, I was wondering if I my offer could refect those things. Mainly I’m wondering if the foundation damage would allow me to ask $70,000 off the asking price due to labor and cost to fix the damages? ( I would not be buying a house with problems if it wasnt such a nice house in the best neighborhood….big return later)…Advice please!!!

by: Eddie Gibson

Wed, 07 May 2008 16:40:59 +0000

My house is around 13 years old, 2 story, brick and hardiplank. It appears that I have some separtion in the brick where it was put together on the outside and also noticed hairline cracks from the inside of my gargage running about halfway into my kitchen. What can I do about this and does it sound like it will be an expensive job?

by: julie

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:55:50 +0000

Can flooring smell bad like ceramic tile if there maybe too much moisture in slab?

by: Keith Joiner

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:45:23 +0000

I have a house with foundation problems like cracks in the walls doors wont lock things like that. My question is i want to put a nice tile in my kitchen will this crack the tiles if the house shifts or even could i use like the snap together laminate flooring or should i be safe and go with the lanolium right now i have the stick on type they are just not very apealing please help?

by: Kristin

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:32:27 +0000

My husband and i are about to buy a house that is 4 years old. We had the inspection done yesterday and the guy found that it has already had foundation work done recently. He says it may have had something to do with the way the windows were put in but we would have to get a structural engineer to look at it. Since it has had work do you think we should get it looked at again or just not buy it at all? We do not know if we want to take the risk of something happening down the road. What do we do?

by: Thomas

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 07:55:40 +0000

Our house is about 100 or so years old, and was re-stumped by its previous owner about 15 years ago, and is heritage listed.
We have cracks throughout our ceiling, which are replicated in the same spot upstairs, and directly beneath these cracks are even larger gaps between the floorboards. Our dining room is elevated in its centre and slops in a downwards direction towards the kick boards, and the wood paneling on the wall no longer sits probably against the existing plaster board.
Some of our floorboards actually bend when they are stood on, and barley any of our windows or doors open or close without having to really push them.
The tiles in our kitchen and bathroom have began to lift off the walls, due to the new cement sheeting cracking, and our kitchen bench no longer sits correctly and seems to be leaning. We have also experienced some major leaks, caused by the actual tiles moving on the roof, and have had large amounts of water going down the walls directly under the house.
We have received two quotes, and have been told that we need to rip up the majority of the floorboards in the back part of the house, due to the joists needing to be replaced and that it will cost around $20,000. Is this quote too much, and do we actually need to rip up our floorboards?

by: Shirley W. Bodiford

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:53:50 +0000

I have about a 10 inch line above my window
in my bedroom and each time I fill it in or
cork it about 3-6months it comes back. HELP: