House people, I have a foundation question
House people, I have a foundation question
hey, do we have any Foundation guys here, dudes or non dude guys who know stuff about foundations? like how bad does this look
There wasn't any noticeable shifting on the floors inside. The realtor used a phone app as a level but I'm pretty sure that's real iffy as an accurate measuring device.
the big crack on the corner by the exposed cables is on a side of the house near a large tree on the neighboring property
the realtor thought the shifting in the foundation was caused by the drain (covered by leaves in one of the pics) dumping water straight down, but when I looked at it again I noticed concrete that was poured under the gutter, probably intended to slant away and divert it into a little ditch leading to the street
so I'm thinking the shifting in the foundation predates the drainage issue and was maybe caused by the tree? I didn't see any big roots TOO close but, idk
this house is kind of small (smaller than our apartment) but it's in a bourgie cracker restaurant neighborhood, or close enough to walk to it, so I imagine the ol' housing-as-commodities we got going on means it will constantly increase in value as long
but idk if something like this means it's like totally fucked because we can't really afford to buy this place AND put tens of thousands of dollars into some foundation repair bullshit
p.s. side note it has a really nice neighborhood, neighbor across the street has a FREE SEED LIBRARY! and a COMMUNITY PLANT EXCHANGE! that's amazing, the neighbor on the side grows peppers and idk what else in above ground containers, looks like spicy shit too. The other neighbor is a soccer fan but nothing can be perfect right?
p.p.s. the realtor kept speaking of insane plans to expand the bathroom but it also has a very large attic that like imo if finished could add like A Bunch of Value to the house? so, idk, it might be a good idea???
it's so hard to decide because it's so much money and contracts and like what if the foundation is totally fucked??? I guess the owner was a contractor and he checked it out when he bought it, but it's been a rental property since 2007. The HVAC also looks old.
but if we take too long to decide, someone might just buy it up because like why not it's in this great location! who cares if the foundations is fucked if you have a million dollars to spend fixing it!
That corner with the bricks is very likely sinking because of that gutter discharging too close to the house. It's actually worse than not having a gutter at all because it's directing the water from the whole roof section to one point. It's a cheap fix to stop future damage(a long piece of gutter extension), but you do want to hire someone to inspect that.
A structural engineer probably or a good home inspector. Have them make sure the grade around the house is directing water away from the foundation, it's the number one reason for foundation damage. Figure out what it'll cost to fix before you buy.
That's what the realtor said about the gutter but i think the shifting predates the drainage issue because there is concrete directly under the gutter that is like dipping towards the house. Idk why they would have put concrete under it at all if it wasn't initially sloping away from it, so, I think it was initially that way and then shifted with the foundation and is now just dumping water straight down
Not a foundation expert but you can put an inspection contingency in your offer. They are unappealing to sellers because the essentially amount to if-I-change-my-mind clauses but interest rates are fucked for the foreseeable future, so you might not be facing much competition right now.
If you put in the contingency and the offer gets accepted, you'll have to get it inspected on your own dime ($200-$300) and the inspector might suggest you call in a structural engineer ($500+), and if you discover an issue and decide to go through with the purchase, anything that gets put in writing becomes something you're legally obligated to disclose to a new buyer. Ignorance is legally protected, however.
Again, not super experienced here but knowing how expensive foundation issues would get, I wouldn't want to make an offer without the inspection contingency.
When it comes to something like this:
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Don't trust the realtor, they don't know anything.
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Don't trust the home inspector, they are legally protected from having to know anything.
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Find out how much a structural engineer costs and have them look at it during your inspection period. Consider making it a separate contingency deadline beyond your inspection period if you think it might take extra time.
Sometimes homeowners have a feeling that something is wrong and they don't want you poking around because then they'll be liable if they don't disclose it once they learn about the problem. In an environment where people aren't bidding shit up in cash the week it comes on the market, it's a red flag if they're scared off by you wanting to look under the hood.
Some states have inspection clauses that require a homeowner to repair any issues within X% of the sale price, others are very Wild West and just let you open it back up to negotiation. If you think that the potential for foundation repairs is going to scare the seller off, you can specify that the foundation inspection is separate and they wouldn't have to repair it but you wouldn't be required to move forward with the purchase. You could figure it out from there if you have to.
That said, I've always heard from contractors that any crack you can't fit a pencil in is probably fine.
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Doesn't look completely fucked, but could get there. Def go the inspection contingency route.
Not to shill reddit, but if you dont get a good answer here ask r/masonry
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Be careful with the attic, adding too much weight could do serious damage.
(I clicked on this post, not knowing if it was going to be about the Foundation series of sci-fi novels or a question about construction.)
Not a contractor by any stretch but I'd have some questions.
First, building inspector? You're giving me vibes that this is a place where building inspectors are a thing. It might be worth the cost (unless you can convince the owner of the house to pay for it) to get a building inspector to look at the place.
Is the house on a concrete pad? (seems like it)
That brickwork? (That is actual brickwork and not some plastic/metal molded sheets that look like brickwork, right?) Any idea when that was added? Is it on the concrete pad or is it sitting outside of the perimeter of the concrete pad on the dirt? If the bricks aren't sitting on the actual foundation, the cracked brickwork won't tell you whats going on with the actual foundation.
Based on the last photo I doubt it's a slab. It's probably raised foundation with the brickwork covering up the gap.
Also, you generally see those stair step cracks along the joints with settling and more aggressive cracks when it comes to an actual failing foundation. If it was molded it would most likely not crack along the joints like that if they were fake.
The only inspector who has the training to make a call on it though is a structural engineer. Everybody else is going to couch whatever they find with "recommend evaluation by relevant professional." The structural engineer is that professional.
I thought it was going to be about the medical TV show
You do NOT want the owner of the house to pay for it; then the inspector will seek to do what they want (e.g. say it's fine) rather than what you as the buyer want (e.g. see if anything is actually wrong).
Paying for it and hiring are two different things. I'd imagine that OP would be the person making the arrangements with the relevant inspector, get a quote and pass the quote on to the seller.
building inspector
how much they're legally obligated to "find" and report to you really varies, as does whether they need any kind of certification at all to go into that line of work
the inspection that was done on the house we live in missed a lot of stuff, some of which became pretty fucking obvious once we had done a little bit of home improvement diy – like, there was a whole section of ductwork between the hvac and the upstairs that was disconnected and venting into the space between the floors, and it was totally obvious to the untrained eye looking with a flashlight in the right spot, you just needed to know where to look. we lived here 18 months before we decided to investigate why the hall floor always felt so wildly warm/cold compared to the rest of the house and saw it in the first 30 seconds of peering around the HVAC area.
so yeah, moral of the story is, don't put your faith in them. dude found some obvious, surface-level code-breaking things, but there was no actual inspection of the infrastructure of the house, and we ended up finding a lot wrong. that broken ductwork wasn't even the tip of the iceberg.
Fair.
Wonder if OP could get a quote from anyplace doing foundation repair work that they could feel confident about instead of a building inspector?
First, building inspector? You're giving me vibes that this is a place where building inspectors are a thing. It might be worth the cost (unless you can convince the owner of the house to pay for it) to get a building inspector to look at the place.
yeah I mean it's a question now of "is it worth it to consider paying for all that" because if they say "yeah this shit is fucked" then we can't afford to fix it and we'll just have spent money on an inspection for nothing
Is the house on a concrete pad? (seems like it)
yeah idk it has a crawlspace but I thought the brick was the foundation. idk I'm not a foundation guy! I'm just a dude!
five hundred bucks is a whole lot less that 10,000 (or whatever it costs for foundation repair).Crawlspace huh? Okay, if it were me, I'd probably be told by my spouse to crawl around under the house. First, to look around to see if any part of the home's footprint was not over concrete. Second to see how many of the supports that the house is sitting on are actually doing their job. Third, move to the areas where the exterior brickwork is cracked to see if I can see daylight through that brickwork and look for cracking in the concrete pad that I'm crawling around on.
(Also, the one time we did mortgage stuff we were required to have home owner's insurance. That insurance place sent their own person to look at the house who took pictures and drew some sketches that the insurance place kinda just... choose random things to require us to "fix" before insuring the home. Not sure how much of a prick the insurance company would be to you, but it absolutely is something they can choose to do.)
Disclaimer: although I have experience building, I don't have personal experience with brick foundations.
How old is this house? If it is a newer house, that seems like a sign of shoddy masonry, though it doesn't look new in those photos, so probably not relevant.
Those cracks don't look that bad to me, and I have heard the rule of thumb of not worrying too much about cracks thinner than a pencil in old masonry, but idk
What I can comment on is that I doubt that level of shifting was caused by the drainage based on the info you have presented. It could be caused by the tree and that is something to assess
How old is this house?
I think it was built in 1948? the realtor kept stressing it was "old enough to stop settling" and stuff.
Those cracks don't look that bad to me, and I have heard the rule of thumb of not worrying too much about cracks thinner than a pencil in old masonry, but idk
the real bad cracks i.e. the corner could maybe be pencil width, idk
What I can comment on is that I doubt that level of shifting was caused by the drainage based on the info you have presented. It could be caused by the tree and that is something to assess
yeah it's just like idk if it's worth paying to have it inspected because if it's expensive to fix then it's not worth doing.....
the floor wasn't uneven though, like this other house we saw had the foundation visibly btfo'd by a tree root and the house smelled mildewy and the floors were visibly warped
I don't really know shit, but I'll give you a gut reaction anyway: if you're planning to live there awhile, and as you say the floors don't seem effected by this, then it is probably fine. The increase in value you expect may well more than offset the foundation repairs.
spoken like someone who knows nothing about how expensive foundation repairs can be
Like I said, I don't know shit. I don't know what the upper bounds of foundation repair costs are, but I have helped with some fairly minor ones.
Not helpful but those photos you uploaded are pretty damn thicc (or is it just me?)