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I am seeking help from anyone who knows about Foundation Problems or Settling issues.
This house was built in 2006, I just bought it a few months ago. As the inspection did not indicate anything other then "minor cracks" I did not worry about it. Now I have had a few people comment on it, and I am thinking I should maybe call a structural engineer to inspect further to make sure I don't have any future issues.
The first picture is a crack about 10" across on the front porch where the step meets the side of the house. As for the width of the crack, you may be able to shove a penny slightly in it.
In this second picture, its about 10 feet from the house, and its the walkway leading from the front porch to the driveway. It looks like it dropped about 2" where it meets the driveway.
Are these two issues alone worth calling a structural engineer for? Or can they really just be dismissed as a minor crack, and trip hazard?
I have been in the home for about 4 months now, with no other issues, so I hope I am just being paranoid.
It's hard to tell what is going on in the first picture because you are zoomed in so close. It looks like it could be a concrete spall forming, but hard to say for certain with the zoom so far in. It could also be a shrinkage crack.
The second issue is a frost heave. Overtime, it may settle back down and level out with the adjacent slab.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. Here are a few better pictures taken from further away (pepe1).
and here is a larger picture of the walkway. No change after the frost left (AustinB).
(Wmsn4Life) It looks like all the cracks are outside of the home. I have a basement as well, and all seems to be good in there (however it is finished with drywall)
The only crack I see is one in the celling of the house, about 25-30 feet away (at the back of the house).
Your steps are a separate pour from the slab. It's not structural at all. It appears that the foundation guy plastered the fronts of the steps for appearance as we do down here. That's what is cracking on the steps. The walk to the drive is probably heaving and is no big deal. It would probably cost as much to fix as a structural engineer to come out and tell you the same thing.
Looking at the close up and the afar picture, that does look like a concrete spall that is forming at the corner of the stoop slab. It isn't structural, but I'm sure you will want to fix it for cosmetic purposes. I suspect a base anchorage for that short section of wall above the spall may have a steel anchorage that is rusting - thus causing the spall.
Your driveway issue is absolutely caused frost heave. The high slab may settle back down over time.
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