opinions from people in this newsgroup would be the blind leading the blind,
visual inspection and other procedures are necessary to answer your
questions

hire an independent structural engineer to determine if the slab is a
problem, otherwise you'll be worrying about it until you get an expert
opinion, whether it is a problem or not


"Kathy" wrote in message ...
Hi,

Our new house is just complete and we are about to close. Today during the
final checkup we found the 2-car garage slab has a hairline crack in the
middle, running from the front to back for 3/4 of the depth, ending at a
point about 6' from the inside wall. We put a 6' straight edge (steel
ruler) across the crack and found the two halves of the slab are at an
angle. When one end of the ruler sits on the slab at one half, the other
end is at least 1/4" about the floor. When the ruler is entirely on either
half, it sits straight and square on the slab. So it is apparent that one
side of the slab has settled more. It appears that the front corner that
is on the far outside (away from the other part of the house) has sunk.
When looking for more evidence, we checked the foundation wall around the
garage. The wall is about 1' tall around the slab. We found at three
places has 2" long hairline crack at the top edge. They do not run all the
way to the slab, though. The locations of these small cracks confirmed it
is that corner that has settled more. Subsequently we carefully inspected
all foundation walls in the crawlspace. The other part (around the heated
space) look fine.

We know many houses will eventually have some fine cracks due to
differential settlement. But this appeared before we move in. It happened
so soon. The concrete was poured in October, only four months old. When
the concrete was poured, we asked GC if he had compacted soil in the ditch
he said no need because that's undisturbed soil. We have clay soil here
and it is as hard as rock at the back of the house but at the front it
appears not as hard. But we trusted GC.

We just found it today and will speak to the GC tomorrow but we'd like
some opinion from poeple here. Is it a concern big enough to stop the
closing process? What the GC can do to remedy it? The city inspectors
OK'ed the house last Friday. Don't know if they noticed the slab crack. We
like the house and want it but if the cracks grow larger and larger in the
coming years it is scary.

TIA