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hannahmarie_gw

Foundation / support question

hannahmarie
11 years ago

Forgive me if I do not use the right terminology. I will try to explain as well as I can. I bought a house about a year ago. It was built in mid 90's. It is a two story and I have a crawlspace since I live in the Pacific NW.. lots of rain here. Had a home inspection and the home inspector's report says that there are some visible cracks on the foundation but it is all cracks that are normal for house settling. He did not mention anything about the supporting beams. I assume he would have if there was something wrong with them. The house did have a bad siding and poorly done draining system in the crawlspace and the crawlspace actually flooded twice when I was already living here. I had the siding redone and new vapor barrier and drainage / sump pump put in in the crawlspace. There has not been any issues with the crawlspace since. I do hear the sump pump run at times, especially when we get heavy rain. Anyways. I would like to know what is considered as normal settling and what is not, ie. when should one suspect there is some supporting issues? There are 2 doors, one upstairs, on downstairs that don't close properly. One of the doors seem to have gotten a bit better since we did the crawlspace work. There is some sloping when it comes to the floors here and there. I have hardwood and tile floors downstairs. Overall the hardwood is in decent shape. Some separation here and there. The tile is in good condition. No cracks even on the sloping parts. Also I have noticed now some cracks are appearing on the walls. They all seem hairline cracks. One is running up where sloping ceiling meets the wall. It looks like it is where the drywall tape sits. There is another one on a corner of a window. It looks like it has been fixed before. I assume it was done when the previous owner painted the whole house. That was in 2005. And now it's reappearing. I also see some nail pops in the drywall. So can anyone tell me what should I look for and if I should be worried about foundation / supporting issues. Or am I just seeing things that are from the original settling of the house? Whenever I just google these "symptoms" , basically I find sites that are telling me "I'm doomed" but I don't know if I should trust them since they are trying to sell their product or service. Oh I don't know if it matters at all but the house is built on hardpan soil. If anyone can also point out how I could keep and eye on things.. how to observe whether I am seeing movement or not, it would be a great help. Thanks, I appreciate any help. Hopefully I posted this to the right forum.

This post was edited by hannahmarie on Thu, Apr 18, 13 at 16:46

Comment (1)

  • weedyacres
    11 years ago

    I'd suggest you post this over on the remodeling forum. This forum is for REALLY old houses.