Comments on: Ask Candy: How Concerned Should I be About Cracks In Our House?

By: Amy Patrick

Amy Patrick — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:10:09 +0000

Structural EIT with failure analysis experience here… This is exactly what I recommended that my friends and family do with regard to monitoring cracks to see if they’re a big deal. Cracking is the name of the game in buildings. Sometimes it’s an indicator of bad things going on, but often it’s normal settlement of soil and materials–the building is just “locking into place,” so to speak.

How do you tell if cracking is a symptom of something harmful or not? You monitor it. In the industry, we use gadgets called crack gauges, but you can just as easily put a piece of tape across the crack, cut the tape along the crack so that the two sides of the piece of tape are free to move as the two sides of the crack move, and if you want, you can put a little mark on the tape across the crack to see how the two sides move with respect to one another. Then, leave it alone.

Come back in a couple of months to check the progress of the crack. Has it widened (have the two pieces of tape pulled apart from one another)? Has one side moved with respect to the other side? If the crack is active, that’s not good news… it could very well be time to call an engineer for an evaluation to see what’s going on. If the crack hasn’t moved at all, then it probably just means that your house settled and it’s okay to patch up the crack and get on with your life.

Three bids is a great idea– it’s what the city requires for developer participation projects. Be careful, though… The lowest bidder may be the Dodge Dart of contractors, so be sure to get recommendations and references, too, and if the contractor is hesitant to give you references, then I’d walk away.

A structural engineer will give you an independent evaluation of what’s going on with your house. You can search for “Texas Professional Engineer” on Google to do a lookup and make sure that your engineer is licensed.

An engineer CAN give you an “engineer’s opinion of cost,” if you’re looking for a ballpark figure for budgeting purposes. Keep in mind, though, that while the engineer is going to be completely unbiased in his or her cost estimate, that unless he or she has a lot of experience in foundation repair estimation, that the estimate may not be super-accurate.

Best of luck!
Amy Patrick, EIT

By: laurie

laurie — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:03:32 +0000

When we needed advice we called Mike Jensen of Jensen Engineers. Their office is in Richardson. There is some cost involved in getting a foundation checked, but it’s one of the most important things you can get inspected.

Candy–you are right about the bedrock. We used to live in a cottage near the Tollway. Mike told us that the bedrock is very close to the surface over there. Our house had been built in 1940 and had almost no movement in 65 years. Sadly, the house was torn down when we moved. Our “new” house was built in 1932 near Preston and Lovers, and we had Mike inspect it before we closed. The old pier and beam houses are the best!

P.S. If you need to get something fixed, get at least 3 bids.

By: Jeff Duffey

Jeff Duffey — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:07:20 +0000

75214 Homeowner, seeing as how the foundation company assessed your home for free, chances are you called a foundation repair company who profits from making such repairs. Much like how a mechanic always makes you think your car needs more work than you intended on having done? That is not to say you don’t need those repairs. But there is an inherent conflict of interest there. That is why in my first comment I recommend calling a licensed structural engineer versus a “foundation repair company”.

The structural engineer will give you an unbiased and professional opinion on what he or she thinks the house needs in terms of piers, beams, moisture control, etc., if any repairs are needed at all. He will never give you an estimate on these repairs. He will not profit from you making the repairs nor does he care if you have the repairs done at all. This is when you should bring in the foundation repair company to give you an estimate on what the structural engineer has recommended.

This is the best way I have found to keep the conflict of interest out of foundation repair issues.

By: 75214 Homeowner

75214 Homeowner — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:53:28 +0000

So we are new homeowners that live in the same area as your reader and have the same era pier-and-beam house with the same wall crack issue. We had a foundation company come out and assess our house for any structural issues (free), and he said there were none – but we could address some of the cracking by stabilzing the piers professionally (ie: the beams are no longer hitting the piers because of shifting and should be professionally “shimmed”). Estimate to do this on the whole house was $3000 – gulp. This seems like a lot when according to this guy there are no structural problems. And it wouldn’t necessarily end the wall cracking.

Does anyone have some advice on this? Or recommendations for reasonable foundation repair companies? I saw the pictures – and agree that there are some areas where we could use repair – but a $3k estimate just seems like we’re being taken…

By: LakeWWWooder

LakeWWWooder — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:11:00 +0000

I know from many years of experience that the homes in Caruth Terrace are extremely well-built. My family has owned one since 1973 (built in 1956) and there have been a few settlement cracks but they are very small and nothing to worry about. There are no cracks in any of the bricks nor the concrete work. The original central air system on that house lasted over 40 years!

From what I have heard the builders in the area had honed their craft for many years prior by apprenticing with some of the great architects and builders such as Dines and Kraft, Charles Dilbeck and Clifford Hutsell. O.W. Smith was one of these he continued to build pier and beam homes long after most builders sold out with the cheaper concrete slabs. You can see his later works in Bob-O-Links. A bit formulaic by then but still solid as a rock.

This is a great area to buy in the Lakewood vicinity. The homes are a bit ‘newer’ with larger kitchens (with dishwasher space), breakfast areas, formal living and dining rooms, dens, some utility rooms and walk-in closets. They have real stone and brick fireplaces and hardwood floors. Most have more bathrooms than you will find in the older Lakewood-area homes.

Also Caruth Terrace is in Blue-Ribbon Stonewall Jackson Elementary.

By: Christian Anniboli

Christian Anniboli — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:53:33 +0000

This is a very common concern for home owners who want an unbiased opinion about their foundation related issues. What I would recommend is an independent structural engineer. Mike Gandy with Lighthouse engineering (214-577-1502) is someone I feel confident will provide you a complete assessment of the real issues surrounding your concerns. If an engineer recommends repair for your home you then may request bids from foundation repair companies. There are many causes of foundation problems on pier and beam structures that include inadequate drainage, trees/tree roots too close to the home and poor soil conditions. In 25% of the homes we inspect we do not recommend foundation work at all. Generally with the proper drainage and maintaining trees and roots you can dramatically reduce signs of movement throughout the year.

By: Jeff Duffey

Jeff Duffey — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:33:35 +0000

You need to call a licensed structural engineer. They make money on the inspections and not on what does or does not need to get fixed. I use Jonathan Cooper 214-695-6717 all the time for my listings and buyers. Structural engineers can refer you to foundation companies but just to avoid any conflict of interest I advise you to get a recommendation from a friend/co-worker. I’ve always been happy with Perma-Pier. 214-637-1853.