Cracks inside the concrete foundation slab? Cracks inside corners of Windows? Cracked porcelain tile? browse around these guys must be foundation problems, we'll correct it for $25,000. That's what you'll hear from most Foundation repair companies. Most of the times, you do not have foundation problems.
There are quite obvious truths about building materials along with their behavior in construction that any honest and knowledgeable structural engineer knows, and also this is one of the recommendations for understand potential foundation problems. For instance, concrete hardens with time, as it hardens it shrinks thus cracking. Concrete will expand and contract with temperatures changes which further causes cracking. This is commonly known as temperature and Shrinkage cracks - they have not even attempt to do with what everyone associates with foundation problems, which is mainly the inspiration shifting, moving up and down, as a result of expansion or settlement from the soil.
What about Cracks within the ceramic tile? Tile is "glued" to the concrete slab, so any movement or crack that occurs inside the slab will likely occur inside the tile, including temperature and shrinkage cracks. Not due to foundation problems.
Cracks inside corners door and windows are incredibly common, usually caused by the fabric itself, gypsum board, which by the way, is also a concrete product, and yes it too cracks mainly because it gets older. As it turns out, concrete doesn't like corners since the geometrical form of most usually creates stress concentration. Many residential and commercial foundations have chipped concrete right inside the edges of the corners because this is this can be the way concrete behaves, this is simply the fabric properties of concrete. With windows and doors you have also wind pushing against the house, and even with an above average structural engineer designing your home, most probably you will still create a crack inside corner of windows and doors.
There's an internal joke among contractors and structural engineers that is certainly "the only thing we could guarantee is the fact that concrete will crack".
We're certainly not suggesting that nobody has foundation problems but we have been stating that most of the problems homeowners think of as foundation problems are in fact, not foundation problems. No foundation problems means no structural problems. The fix for such non structural foundation problems is patching, and sometimes there is no fix, like within the case of temperature and shrinkage cracks in the foundation.
Therefore, it is advisable to choose a professional structural engineer, but a majority of importantly, a structural engineer which doesn't offer foundation repair services. A structural engineer who works for a company that provides foundation repairs posseses an enormous and inherent conflict of curiosity. Our experience is always that often times, these structural engineers treat everything as foundation problems and also this might end up costing you several thousands using the result that your foundation will not be much better of computer originally was.
If you have doubts about your foundation, just engage a structural engineer which doesn't offer repair services. He'll do a foundation inspection and will inform you what problems, if any, your foundation has. Also, be sure you consult your neighborhood board of professional engineers to ensure that the engineer you hire is in reality licensed to rehearse structural engineering.