House with cracks in foundation

rickdi · 05-02-2009, 11:03 AM

I am looking at a house with a full basement. The house has a large crack in three of the four concrete basement walls. They have been professionally repaired and documented. The house was built in the 1970's.

Should I be concerned about this? Will the cracks get worse or should everything be fine now?

rickdi · 05-13-2009, 02:31 PM

Anyone? PLease?

GBR · 05-13-2009, 02:42 PM

1. Are you showing signs of water incoming?

2. Is the wall in the same plane on both sides? Or is one side really offset?

3. How wide are they? Wider at the top, or bottom?

4. Are they straight or curved?

5. What percentage of the wall are they in height? Be safe, G

rickdi · 06-06-2009, 03:38 PM

I see no signs of water leaking in when I was there.

IIRC, the cracks are in the same plane.

Was unable to view wideness, due to repair.

Mostly straight, but there is variance based on the patch pattern.

I believe that they were at least half of the the wall.

The house is still for sale, I think mostly due to it not being 'in town', and I am still interested if I can unload the current one.

Thank!

GBR · 06-06-2009, 08:40 PM

If they were repaired, I would GUESS the were only settling cracks, or possibly when they back-filled too soon, at original build. One pushed out of plane would suggest problems- soil, water, a major change to affect a solid concrete wall.
Today's code compliance makes you install the floor joists above to help counter act the forces of back-filling. When I started in '73, that wasn't required, I imagine there are a lot of cracked foundations as the builders were in a hurry. Be safe, G