Basement walls and Foundation slab

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cbc

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Greetings ,
I just moved to a newly constructed house in NJ . the house has a walkout basement with concrete walls and floating slab.

I find open space in between the foundation wall and the floating slab in the basement . Attached are some pictures showing the space I am referring to .



This space is about an inch in width and runs all around the basement walls

Should I look into sealing that space with some sort of foam or silicon or should leave it as is .

Would this be a place where insects could come into the house ?

Do I need to worry about this opening when trying to finish the basement at a later stage

Thanks in advance for the help,

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Doesn’t look like you have water coming in. That’s good.

I am no expert but it looks like it was poured after the walls and they used some sort of expansion board all around and maybe it has broken down. I think if it was mine I would dig out anything loose and seal it with a product made for that. Some kind of a rubber like filler.

Experts should be along soon. Welcome to the forum. :)
 
A new house? Is the builder still available? I haven't heard of floating slabs before, but it makes sense, if you consider the term, that it's not connected to the wall.
 
Thanks for the responses and the information shared

-No water coming out . Basement is dry
-I got the house 30 days ago and I still have the builder warranty available .
-I tried to raise a claim with the builder and the supervisor said that they do not seal that space

Do you think I should escalate my request and have them seal it ? Does it make sense to ask to seal it or is it true that such type of floating slab is not sealed to allow it to expand and contract with the weather

Thanks for the help ,
 
As a unfinished basement it would be fine as is I would think and you basically bought the house with an unfinished basement space. So they may not have to do anything. That I don’t know for sure but likely what they will claim. If your plans are to put a floor in there someday there are a whole lot of measures you should take to seal it up I would think. And one of them would be to seal that joint with something that will flex.

I thought some of the builders here would have replied by now on what is common practice.
 
In the crack you can see some black goo, dig that out and get a little on your hands and spend the next week washing it off. Up here in new houses, there is sand and vapour bearier the bearier runs up the wall to the height of the top of the slap and is stuck there with acustical sealer and then a 3 1/2 inch sill gasket is put against the bearier with more gue. The one shot that shows foam against the foundation near your walk out, the foam should have been below the slab. Take your photos down to the permit dept. and see what they requimend for that.
 
we ran into this many times when we operated our bsmnt wtrproofing co in woodbridge,,, its called a 'slot drain' - bldrs would place 1x's against the wall on top of the footer & use it for the bsmnt conc guy as a screed rail,,, after the conc's cured, they'd pull it out & the bldr would proudly proclaim it as bsmnt wall wtr leak control,,, don't ask - i don't know :confused:

IF we had 1 in our house, i'd seal it w/closed cell backer rod - gamka in edison would be my source of choice

you're welcome - good luck !
 
Great thank you to all replied . The advises were spot on

This is an awesome forum ,

Thanks again for the help ,
 

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