wrote:

I am planning to buy a house. Hill country, Austin TX. The house was
built in 1978, 3BR, 1800 sq feet, 2 stories. The soil is rather
"rocky" there. As I saw a couple of diagonal crack coming from the
windows I contracted a foundation inspector to check up the slab
underneath the house. He came over and took measurements (he used some
powered device with an antenna). The outcome of the measurements is in
the attached link. Do you think that 1.5" difference within 40 feet is
in tolerance ? He recommended that no foundation repair is needed. I
am a little concerned though so I seek a second opinion. Pls let me
know - thanks so much
Martin


http://www.newhouse.com-a.googlepage...Untitled-1.jpg

I wouldn't worry your little head about it. It sounds like you
have a high spot at the reference point and the rest of the house
is within tolerances for a home that old. We have repaired
houses that were out by 6" or more and one time a corner was down
by 12". If yours is 30 years old and within those tolerances,
you are good to go.

Trust your engineer, he probably knows what he is doing. Watch
for further movement, but if it is that close after this long, I
don't think it is going to move any further. It could have been
out that much when it was built.

And yes, I am familiar with homes in this area.

Another thing is this; We don't have homes with basements in
this area because we don't need them. There is no frost heave
worth talking about, and that is why most homes have basements.
It is easier to dig down below the frost line and leave it as a
room after pouring your foundation walls. Costs more to fill it
back up with dirt than it is to just leave it.

Here you only need about 36" of footer to support your home, so
we just trench it. I have dug enough in this country to know
that it is not too hard to dig, just unnecessary. I have done
plenty of homes out in the hill country and many have had septic
systems which we dug with back hoe (sometimes needing a hoe ram).

You CAN dig, just don't need to.

--
Robert Allison
Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX