Sulphate resistance is mostly achieved by using the right cement type according to the soil and water test results. But these result will change after the building is completed and fertilizers are applied.
It's very common to have trees and shrubs around building foundations, and it's almost inevitable to fertilize them several times a year.
I know fertilizers are usually very bad for concrete, especially the ammonium sulphate which is called out in many concrete research papers but widely used in...
I did some further research and found this article:
Link
It mentioned "If horizontal steel is present, you are more likely to get several very small cracks in lieu of one or two much wider cracks"
I guess this is the reason why the cracks are numerous but small in size. Shrinkage cracks only...
Good question Dik. This area is a basically in a forest, extremely good natural environment, tested the soil PH value, around 7. Found some efflorescence at the bottom of the foundation where the exterior footing drain locates, but no efflorescence around the cracks. But I'm very concerned by...
Answer Dik's question, no, no crack in any interior drywall, all door and window frames are perfectly square, window sills are perfectly level. I even laser tested a long crown molding that runs along the exterior wall, perfectly straight and level. This result is aligned with the test I ran in...
Soil containment should not be a big issue, this is a typical crawl space foundation, footing was poured in a trench, thus the soil under the footing should not be able to move horizontally easily. And there is not expansive soil detected when I inspected the soil type in the crawl space.
And...
Thank you everyone for the great suggestions.
Most of you believe these are shrinkage cracks and not a structural issue.
But if the four corner areas are sinking downward just a little bit and created some tension to the top edge, does it also generate this cracking pattern?
Spec is almost impossible to get, not to mention how much it could be changed during the implementation.
The foundation is rebar reinforced, vertical for sure, horizontal maybe. Silty soil. Concrete was cured in an environment of temperature 70F daytime and 50F at night.
My understanding is...
Client's foundation was poured 2 years ago, perimeter is square, each foundation wall is about 30 feet long, 4 feet high. Recently client noticed hairline cracks in foundation all over the places (every wall has about 20 cracks, evenly distributed in the middle 2/3 section).
Inspected the...
