As a homeowner it may be hard to determine when the small cracks in your home are in fact more than just small little imperfections. It could mean that it is time to have a professional residential foundation repair specialist come in and fix a larger issue.
Is it A Foundation Problem?
The first question with a crack is it just the house settling with age. The weather can change the way your home settles and can create a dangerous gap with the foundation. To determine if it is more, there are some questions you need to get answers to by observing the problems within your home.
Monitor Cracks in Your Home
It is wise to keep notes on the cracks both in the interior and exterior of your home. Measuring your cracks periodically to see if they have expanded is a great way to monitor the damage. If you have a basement or crawl space it is important to take notice of cracks there as well.
Soil Can Cause Issues
If you notice that your home has unleveled floors, gaps above kitchen cabinets, or it is hard to open doors or windows. Has your patio has pulled away from your home that was once lined up to the house. Another small sign is if your wallpaper is starting to crease and wrinkle, when foundation problems arise the wallpaper begins to shift. As time goes on the wallpaper will sperate and rip from the walls.
Have you looked at a wall and thought that it was a nail coming through? This is a nail pop, small cracked circles when the nail pulls away from the drywall or sheet rock.
All these warnings can mean that the soil could be affecting your foundation. When soil is wet it expands pushing on the foundation. In drier seasons the soil shrinks and that will cause shifts in your home’s foundation.
These are all situations that will need a residential foundation repair specialist to look at and asses how to handle to your foundation.
Static or Dynamic Cracks
There are different types of cracks that can occur in your home. The two identifiers are static and dynamic. A static crack is an ordinary house settling crack. They are the ones that do not continue to expand, they are a small crack that stays the same size. These cracks are ones that can be repaired with a sealant.
A dynamic crack is a crack that continues to expand with time. This is the type that indicate a larger structural compromise. A call to a residential foundation repair specialist will need to be made for further inspection.
Common cracks in the walls are vertical. However, if your crack is horizontal, then whether it is static, or dynamic won’t matter as you will need to call a construction company. What a horizontal crack implies is that the soil beneath your home has contracted and left space between the ground and your foundation.
Contact Weinstein Construction for an inspection and estimate to make sure that your home is safe. The longer you wait the more damage can accrue.
