I'm looking for a house, and a few that I have looked at have cracks in
the corner of the concrete foundation. I've only seen it on houses that
have a basement.

Here's some links to photos of two of the houses:

worst one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644983/

same crack, different angle:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4986873...n/photostream/

two smaller ones:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644990/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644994/


How bad is this? Can it be safely ignored? Is it worse if more than one
corner is cracked?

Or does it need repair? If so, what is involved? Just some drilling,
insert some rebar, and some concrete?

--
Tony Sivori

Looks like shoddy construction to me, if there was any wire or rebar in
that it might have cracked, but it would still have held together.

I see that some of the bricks are chipped on the corner. It looks to me like
the corner has been hit by something that damaged both the concrete and the
bricks. I can think of nothing in normal day to day life nor settling of the
foundation that would cause both to be damaged the same way. Probably some
construction or heavy duty landscaping equipment bumped or scraped the
corner when it was working in the area.


"Tony Sivori" wrote in message
news
I'm looking for a house, and a few that I have looked at have cracks in
the corner of the concrete foundation. I've only seen it on houses that
have a basement.

Here's some links to photos of two of the houses:

worst one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644983/

same crack, different angle:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4986873...n/photostream/

two smaller ones:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644990/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644994/


How bad is this? Can it be safely ignored? Is it worse if more than one
corner is cracked?

Or does it need repair? If so, what is involved? Just some drilling,
insert some rebar, and some concrete?

--
Tony Sivori

How about chips in the brick from when someone tried to break the
cement back for patching purposes? I don't like the looks of it. It
looks to me like it has been patched at least twice previously. Good
Luck, RW

EXT wrote:
I see that some of the bricks are chipped on the corner. It looks to me like
the corner has been hit by something that damaged both the concrete and the
bricks. I can think of nothing in normal day to day life nor settling of the
foundation that would cause both to be damaged the same way. Probably some
construction or heavy duty landscaping equipment bumped or scraped the
corner when it was working in the area.


"Tony Sivori" wrote in message
news
I'm looking for a house, and a few that I have looked at have cracks in
the corner of the concrete foundation. I've only seen it on houses that
have a basement.

Here's some links to photos of two of the houses:

worst one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644983/

same crack, different angle:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4986873...n/photostream/

two smaller ones:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644990/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644994/


How bad is this? Can it be safely ignored? Is it worse if more than one
corner is cracked?

Or does it need repair? If so, what is involved? Just some drilling,
insert some rebar, and some concrete?

--
Tony Sivori

As a foundation contractor I would agree. The patch job appears to be
very bad. It looks like they just used bagged cement. The correct fix
may have to come from an engineer depending on how much of the
foundation was damaged. We fix items like this all the time. It would
involve chipping away until you get to the original concrete, doweling
into and epoxying in rebar, then repouring the corner with high
strength concrete. This would not take two people more than one day to
fix from what I can see.


EXT wrote:
I see that some of the bricks are chipped on the corner. It looks to me like
the corner has been hit by something that damaged both the concrete and the
bricks. I can think of nothing in normal day to day life nor settling of the
foundation that would cause both to be damaged the same way. Probably some
construction or heavy duty landscaping equipment bumped or scraped the
corner when it was working in the area.


"Tony Sivori" wrote in message
news
I'm looking for a house, and a few that I have looked at have cracks in
the corner of the concrete foundation. I've only seen it on houses that
have a basement.

Here's some links to photos of two of the houses:

worst one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644983/

same crack, different angle:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4986873...n/photostream/

two smaller ones:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644990/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644994/


How bad is this? Can it be safely ignored? Is it worse if more than one
corner is cracked?

Or does it need repair? If so, what is involved? Just some drilling,
insert some rebar, and some concrete?

--
Tony Sivori

Looks like spalling concrete caused by movement of the brick. Brick
swells and shrinks with moisture changes, and moves at a different rate
than concrete. As it moved, the concrete adhered to the bricks move
until it cracked.

Besides patching the concrete, you need to look at eliminating
excessive moisture conditions in the brick wall. Check for water
dripping/splashing on the brick from the eaves, blocked weepholes in
the bottom course of bricks, possible leaking pipe/drains in the wall,
or water puddling at the foundations. All bad, but fixable.


Tony Sivori wrote:
I'm looking for a house, and a few that I have looked at have cracks in
the corner of the concrete foundation. I've only seen it on houses that
have a basement.

Here's some links to photos of two of the houses:

worst one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644983/

same crack, different angle:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4986873...n/photostream/

two smaller ones:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644990/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644994/


How bad is this? Can it be safely ignored? Is it worse if more than one
corner is cracked?

Or does it need repair? If so, what is involved? Just some drilling,
insert some rebar, and some concrete?

--
Tony Sivori

How would this explain the lack of rebar at the corners?

cmiles3 wrote:
Looks like spalling concrete caused by movement of the brick. Brick
swells and shrinks with moisture changes, and moves at a different rate
than concrete. As it moved, the concrete adhered to the bricks move
until it cracked.

Besides patching the concrete, you need to look at eliminating
excessive moisture conditions in the brick wall. Check for water
dripping/splashing on the brick from the eaves, blocked weepholes in
the bottom course of bricks, possible leaking pipe/drains in the wall,
or water puddling at the foundations. All bad, but fixable.


Tony Sivori wrote:
I'm looking for a house, and a few that I have looked at have cracks in
the corner of the concrete foundation. I've only seen it on houses that
have a basement.

Here's some links to photos of two of the houses:

worst one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644983/

same crack, different angle:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4986873...n/photostream/

two smaller ones:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644990/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644994/


How bad is this? Can it be safely ignored? Is it worse if more than one
corner is cracked?

Or does it need repair? If so, what is involved? Just some drilling,
insert some rebar, and some concrete?

--
Tony Sivori

Tony Sivori wrote:
I'm looking for a house, and a few that I have looked at have cracks in
the corner of the concrete foundation. I've only seen it on houses that
have a basement.

Here's some links to photos of two of the houses:

worst one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644983/

same crack, different angle:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4986873...n/photostream/

two smaller ones:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644990/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868737@N00/360644994/


How bad is this? Can it be safely ignored? Is it worse if more than one
corner is cracked?

Or does it need repair? If so, what is involved? Just some drilling,
insert some rebar, and some concrete?

--
Tony Sivori

We contracted to have our house built ten years ago, and last year the same
corner cracks developed in the concrete.

I called the contractor since I had an engineered foundation, and this
should not have happened. A guy came out to check on it. He said it was a
result of failing to completely wrap the foundation fill with plastic.

He sent a concrete man out, who told me the same thing. He chipped off the
surface of the concrete and the cracks only went about 1/8 inch deep. He
filled the area with concrete and came back a couple days later and put on
new underpinning.

Apparently it has solved the problem, although since it has only been one
year, I guess it's too early to proclaim a total fix.