Home Foundation Repair
We have had clients in the past ask us to assess their situation when they have been looking at purchasing a home and have discovered cracks in the foundation. Is it a deal breaker or no? Here is our assessment:
The first piece of advice is to bring in an expert, most likely a structural engineer. Charleston and the surrounding areas lay on a fault line, and being on the coast, many homesite are layered with different kinds of soil and sediment. Some of the layers are rock and solid while others may be spoil or fill dirt with various degrees of compaction
Anyhow, if you're seeing cracks it could very possibly be the cracks in a house are a flashing beacon that serious soil problems underlay which could negate any attempts you make at repairing the cracks you see.
On the flip side, I've been inside dozens of basements that have hairline cracks that radiate from the corners of basement windows that are just harmless concrete shrinkage cracks.
You need to bring in at least one expert and possibly two before you purchase this home. The first person I would hire would be a residential structural engineer that specializes in foundation work. Not all structural engineers inspect residential homes and some don't focus that much on concrete foundations, so choose one which specializes in foundations.
When the structural engineer visits the house and looks at all the visible evidence, he may suggest that you bring in a soils engineer or a local geologist that knows the area and is well aware of cantankerous soils that don't play well with houses.
The fees you pay these individuals for an assessment will be a small percentage of what you might spend to remedy serious foundation problems. The two-hour charge you pay the structural engineer could be the best money you spend in your life.
If the engineer tells you that he's not overly concerned with the cracks and what caused them, he may discuss with you repair methods that he's had great success. Ask him about epoxy injections in foundation cracks. Some concrete epoxies mimic welding steel. The actual epoxy is stronger than the concrete, and if you get it to bond correctly it can often make a permanent repair.
Some concrete foundation repairs can be a matter of installing piers under the existing footings and foundations. These piers are often just concrete legs that extend through bad soil down to strong soil or bedrock.
There are all sorts of other foundation repair methods that employ steel plates and rods that straighten bowed foundation walls. Cables, interior vertical steel i-beams, and a host of other time-tested repair methods may also be suggested by the structural engineer.
Foundation cracks, especially serious ones, that are repaired are often hard to disguise. They're like a facial scar that telegraphs a message to a future buyer of the house that something bad happened. It's a stigma that could make it harder to sell your home as a buyer may not believe the foundation is stable.
