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We have an one year old house. Just noticed several small foundation cracks. I think they are ok as shown in picture 1.
But there is a bigger crack which I am not so sure. It is large and deep. Picture 2 is outside view. Picture 3 is inside garage view of the same crack. Also, noticed the deep gap/trench along the garage floor. the crack run along within that gap till the other side of the house, but getting thinner. Felt like the house is split into two sides.
Those are typical concrete cracks. Unless there is some differential settlement it's probably not a problem. Are you still within the home warranty period with your builder? If so, document it in writing with them in case it become a bigger issue down the road.
At this point, those cracks are meaningless in terms of size and appear to be normal expansion/ contraction cracks, in fact, one of them is fallowing the slab scored joint, which indicates the movement is occurring at the designed/predicted location.
You could certainly monitor those cracks to see if they continue and expand in size. You could mark up and scribe to create a “Tell Tale” if desired. Correspondence without any proof is sort of meaningless.
I'm not terribly knowledgeable about construction, but based on my own experience, I would do as Pruzhany and JonahWicky suggested and see if the crack goes through to the inside and also document. We've bought several new homes and all the builders have offered a 1 year punch list for repairs. I would start to monitor the area on the inside for signs of water coming in when you have heavy rain. It might be a small amount, so check frequently.
Our 3rd house had a poured concrete foundation with a crack that went from the outside to the inside. The builder patched it and that held a number of years, but we'd get a little every so often and my husband patched it. 17 years after the house was built, it started to leak whenever we had heavy rain and none of the old fixes resolved it. We were selling the house to relocate and finally called in a basement waterproofing company that repaired it for a reasonable amount and that corrected it.
90% of the settlement, or differential settlement occurs within the first 5 years.
I doubt the house will collapse but if it's move that much in 1 year then that does not bode well. The crack in the second photo runs right along the joint so it shouldnt be an issue. Just keep an eye out for cracks elsewhere. You may be patching drywall soon. If you see groundwater seeping up into your floor after a heavy rain then you may have to have someone come out and install some piers.
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