Construction-y people.

SatanIsMyMotor

So I'm going through the process of buying house (ie: currently shopping around and looking at places). We found a house this evening that we LOVE however there was one big problem. There are some cracks in the foundation.

I'm not talking small cracks. I'm talking one crack that I could fit my fist in and another on the corner of the house that looks like you could remove a sizeable chunk from.

What's the cost associated with fixing something like this? Is it fixable?

Moses555

I think repairs would require digging underneath the house and using a hydraulic jack to lift the side that is sinking. This is pretty expensive, and a big red flag for potential problems in the future.

If the foundation moved a good 4 inches it either took part of the house with it or separated from the house. Both bad things with unpredictable consequences.

Dark_Side

There's no way to know for sure until you have an expert look at it, sometimes just the crack needs some epoxy, other times the crack is indicative of other more serious problems with construction or soils movement.

Were it me, I would probably try to get the owner to have a geotechnical engineer come look at it and provide a report/recommendation. Any house with a crack you can put your fist through in the foundation needs to have said crack looked at by an expert before you even consider buying.

Wiley

It is fixible. I believe it will cost at least $2,500 and perhaps as much as ten times that depending on the method used and how extensive the damage is.

Djeet

Just from SatanIsMyMotor's description I'd be surprised if it was less then 5 digits for the foundation repair. We had some foundation work done on our pier and beam house which is much easier to work on and that was $3-4K (a dozen or so new piers poured and a levelling correcting a 2" sag in one corner). Slab work on the scale you're talking about will require excavation and then sinking supports until you hit something solid enough to support the part of the foundation that's moving.

One overlooked issue about foundation work (ouside of minor shimming on a pier and beam) is that everything sitting on the foundation moves when the foundation moves. So you will very likely see cracks appear in the drywall, particularly at joints (above windows, portals and doorways), and the cost of repairing these issues are not often included in the foundation repair estimate.

Raziel

Sexy as the house is, if the foundation's already fuckered, just imagine how bad it will be in fifteen or twenty years. What you need to realize here is that this crack (if it is as big as you say) indicates structural weakness. Houses shift with time, and if moisture gets in there and freezes one winter it can blow that crack wide open.

There will be other houses, bud. Just feel glad that you caught it before you paid.

ihmmy

you want to move on. Or at a minimum, get a home inspection and see how bad it actually is.

We had found what I thought was the perfect house. Had everything we wanted. Foundation looked a touch funny on the one side from outside, but we didn't think there would be major issues. The home inspection revealed that the foundation was failing on the north and south walls PLUS owners at some time did renos where they severely weakened the structure (hole through main support beam, plus removed a very important support post). We walked away. It was way too much, at least 35,000 to fix and probably more in the long run (but like I said, it was a genuine failure on two walls of the house).

Now we found another house that is bigger and better (mmmm, high efficiency furnace and water heater) and we're just waiting on the home inspection for that one which is this week. Playing with foundations is costly and a biiig deal, and something we were unwilling to do (and couldn't afford) so we just walked away, it was far too much for us.

SatanIsMyMotor

Yeah, we likely won't move forward with this but we're still going to do some inquiries. Ultimately, what gets me is the fact that we won't have to just fix the foundation but what's causing the problem in the first place. Thanks for all the advice gang.

mugginns

Looks like it is wrapped up, but I'd say don't purchase it. There are plenty of houses on the market, find a better one. Foundation cracks are a HUGE problem.