Foundation Help

7 years ago

Hi all,

New to the forum, looking for some quick advice. My fiance and I are interested in purchasing a house but found a foundation crack in the basement. I have attached a picture. I'm considering getting the house inspected before putting in an offer, but don't want to "waste" the money if this is an obvious issue that will require thousands of dollars in repairs. If anyone has any foundation experience and can tell based off a single picture what kind of issue might be present I would greatly appreciate the advice. Thanks!

Featured Answer

geoffrey_b

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

If I were selling this home, I'd get that taken care of before ever putting it on the market. It's neglect. Makes me wonder what else was neglected.

It looks like an older home. I see some sort of discoloration all around the wall - about 2 feet high. Could it be mold?

The crack is probably stable - cause it's an old home - maybe a profession could use some special caulk.

How's the rest of the basement? Are you planning to use the basement for anything but storage? That may be a moisture problem.

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Comments (8)

Daniel Caccamo
Original Author
7 years ago
I live in Ottawa and the market is crazy, the house is vacant and has probably been neglected for a while... Its only affordable cause it requires work, unfortunately.. Home was built in 1967. The rest of the basement seemed fine, half is finished while this half was open. I couldn't notice any other major signs of leakage
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Izzy Mn
7 years ago
I would think the outside, I assume below grade needs some repair of some kind also so some digging would be required. What does the outside look like. The picture looks like at least three attempts to repair based on what looks like 3 different colors (or more) of what ever substance used. I would plan on fixing it if purchased. Looks like poured cement with wood forms used rather than cinder block.
Matthew Studer
7 years ago
I wanted to add on to this thread. How bad to these cracks look in the basement concrete block? This is a 30 year old house. I was thinking about using a concrete caulk tube and just sealing them up. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.
User
7 years ago
Thoughts? This is a post hijack.

re caulking, why? Caulking is not structural, in your case, caulking has not been attractive. Why?
PRO
GN Builders L.L.C
7 years ago
Chase the crack with a chisel or with a Concrete Crack Chaser Diamond Blade, after that vacuum and use air blower to clean out the crack and fill the crack with hydro cement using tuck-pointer tool or use Two-Part Epoxy Adhesive Paste, used for Anchoring or Crack Repair...Something like

72561 PC-Concrete or a similar product you can find at the local box store.

Calking or cement patch will not work in this cases.
geoffrey_b
7 years ago
Thanks GN Builders - I'm going to redo my 20 year old Epoxied garage floor - and I have a few 'divots'. Looks like the 72561 Concrete epoxy is what I need.
Emme Eve
6 years ago
Repairing foundation crack is important to avoid further damage to the building. With the help of the right guidance from your expert, you can easily solve basement foundation crack.

The following are some points that would be surely helpful for you.

Before beginning the solution let’s analyze the whole property. It will be helpful for you in determining the actual damage, how would it be solved and what should be the possible solution for a specific problem.

The expert you hire should have complete knowledge and must be aware of every possible foundation damages.

I hope it is helpful for you.