Warning: I ignored foundation cracks for 6 months in a house in Ohio

I found a few hairline cracks in the basement wall of a place I was looking at near Akron... didn't think much of it until my buddy who does structural work came with me on a second visit. He pointed out one crack that had shifted about a quarter inch over the course of a year based on the old paint line. Turned out the previous owner just patched them up before listing, and the real fix would be around $12,000 for helical piers. I walked away from the deal and dodged a massive headache. Has anyone else had luck catching stuff like this during a home inspection before it's too late?

2 comments

2 Comments

scott.mia15d ago

Ngl that helical pier thing is a specific fix for foundation settlement, but not all cracks need piers. Sometimes you can get away with epoxy injections or carbon fiber straps if the cracking is from shrinkage or minor movement. A quarter inch shift over a year is pretty serious though, so you were smart to walk. A buddy of mine had a similar situation near Dayton where the inspector missed a crack behind drywall in the basement, ended up costing him $8k for a full wall reinforcement a year later.

cameron72414d ago

Read somewhere that those epoxy injections can actually make things worse if the crack is still moving, because the rigid fill just transfers stress to another spot. Saw a structural engineer's blog where he showed photos of a foundation that cracked in a new place after someone sealed an active crack with epoxy. Carbon fiber straps at least let the wall move a little while holding it together. Did your buddy's inspector have any kind of warranty or bond on his work?