"Charles Pisano" wrote in message
...
The vacation home I purchased in Aug. of last year has 2 cracks (not
huge in width- but they go through the wall all the way and run almost
the entire length) in a vertical foundation wall. They happen to be the
wall that faces the upslope of the hill I live on.

There are also some cracks in the garage floor area. I was told I might
get 'those'. But I don't believe there should be cracks in a solid pour
foundation wall this (very) early on. Should there be? Also what causes
this to happen in new construction.?

And I guess If there shouldn't be any cracks , what could the builder do
that would remedy the situation to the point of making me whole again.
Also, the home comes with a 10 year warranty, so anything MAJOR after
Aug. is covered.

But (for now) I'm still under him for claims.



I have spent the better part of my working life in basements of all types.
I would not consider any cracking acceptable. Yours sounds extreme to me
for a new house. I'm wondering if they put any reinforcing bar inside of
the concrete. You could also have soil settling problems. They may have
put the footings on filled in dirt. I would address this immediately as you
don't know what the long term ramifications will be. Talk to a lawyer, an
engineer, and the building inspector. Get lots of pictures. I saw on TV
once some engineers putting these little gauges on cracks to monitor for
settling or earthquakes (I can't remember). Maybe you can get some of those
to monitor the progress of the cracking. You don't want to lose value in
your house. I would ask the builder to buy it back.

I remember about 20 something years ago I was working on a four story
apartment building in Los Angeles. As the job was drawing to a close
another company demolished the building next door and began excavating for a
new foundation. Their foundation hole undercut the footings of the building
I was on by several feet. The buildings were only about 20 feet apart. A
few days later the owner of the building I was on noticed cracks in the
underground garage. Both jobs came to a halt until the engineers could
figure a way to rectify the problem. I remember one day I stopped by and
there were about twenty people from both sides looking at the cracks and the
hole. There was a city inspector, lawyers and engineers from both sides,
the two architects, the contractors, and who knows what else. Eventually
they came up with a solution to dump a lot of concrete between the
buildings.