Residential cracked basement wall
Residential cracked basement wall
(OP)
Summer is coming and a lot of houses are being sold. I have been doing my solo practice for a year and my name is getting passed around. I also get good hits on the google map. Now sellers/buyers/realtors are contacting me. It is usually cracks on foundation and they want me to basically inspect and write a letter and say the foundation is good as is. Usually the house inspector saw horizontal cracks and put "consult a structural engineer" on their report. How do you guys usually do it? Just say no? I have no idea what reinforcement is in the wall. My guess, usually it was caused by a poor drainage. I can't just write a letter and say it is good? Too much liability for a small fee. Making them dig up the wall and put perforated pipe seems not doable because it wont daylight anywhere. Patching the crack with epoxy does not solve the problem of why the wall cracked the first time. Dig up the wall the install a counterfort? What do you guys usually do?
RE: Residential cracked basement wall
But if this is an area of business you want to pursue, my advice would be to make sure you are covered for liaiblity. Have a good signed contract with lien language, where if you don't get paid you can tie up the property. Find a good local GPR company, don't do any assuming. Be very up front on the costs of all this when they first contact you, or you will be wasting your time a LOT in my experience.
RE: Residential cracked basement wall
Some people love these. And they can be fun if you have enough time and fee. It's similar to forensics...all about solving a structural puzzle. And not a code puzzle. It's a what-is-the-structure-actually-doing puzzle. Those can be incredibly educational and give good insights into design decisions and building your judgment. I'm glad I did them. I don't want to do them again.
RE: Residential cracked basement wall
RE: Residential cracked basement wall
I break my report out into three segments:
- Observations (just raw facts and photos)
- Opinions (Based on observation 1, the issue appears to be...)
- Recommendations (Because the house appears to be settling, you should...)
If it's settlement or soil related, I will advise that a single inspection is inadequate to properly assess the situation. To do so would require a geotechnical engineer and long term observation. I'll also put in a short paragraph explaining that wood framed houses move continuously, and you will get drywall cracks and nail pops somewhere eventually.
RE: Residential cracked basement wall
In NJ most houses are built in the 50s,60s, & 70s, they all have unreinforced 8" CMU (or 12" to 8" step) and they all have horizontal cracks at the midpoint. Truly unlimited work.
My standard letter talks about the forces and how it needs reinforcement. I have a few different details between adding new bars or carbon fiber straps (super popular these days) and the designs are all the same.
If I'm working for the seller as opposed to the buyer I word my letter slightly different, but if I see a horizontal crack I still say it will need reinforcement. Maybe there's paint in the crack and they painted 10 years ago so we know the crack has been here for some time with little change. Stuff like that.
Unfortunately (fortunately) I moved to the shore area so it's 90% crawlspaces, which are also all disasters and have unlimited work potential, but a lot dirtier.
RE: Residential cracked basement wall
The advice I have is:
1. Take the work if you need to eat, but don't count on it as a reasonable business stream.
2. Take the work if it's a new buyer that is looking to do work. I much preferred that situation.
3. Take the work if you have enough time to do the "testing" that you want to see.
4. Have boilerplate templates that are air-tight in terms of observations, opinions, limited scope, etc.
RE: Residential cracked basement wall