from Candice @ Exovations: My house is approx 9 years old and in the last year we have noticed that...
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EXOVATIONS
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the ceiling is cracking in random places and a few of the doors on the interior of the house do not close properly and will no longer lock. My husband thinks the house is settling. OK. But what do we do in reaction to this? Obviously, we need to patch and paint the ceiling cracks but what about the doors? I no longer want a "cracked out" house- no pun :)
8 answers
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If your home is just now having these issues after nine years, I don't think it is just settling. Have you had unusual amounts of water around or under your home? Many times more water or extreme dry periods will cause the soil to expand or shrink causing the problems you mention. These problems can also be caused by excessive water on plants next to the foundation of the home, or a water leak caused by a defective watering system for your plants. I have seen much larger issues than you speak of caused by water accumulating in areas next to or under homes. Someone needs to investigate for water issues that could be causing your problems.
Tri-Lite Builders ~ Homework Remodels
on Mar 08, 2012
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Our land is very flat so it is difficult for the water to "run off" with excessive rains. To the left side of our home the water sometimes just sits after a big rain. This is very good information and I will definitely have it checked out! Thank you!
EXOVATIONS
on Mar 09, 2012
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So...your living in a "crack house" eh?...LOL What type of Home / foundation do you have? Slab, basement etc. Settling can often give other clues in some areas, as an example if you have a basement and a poured and "visible" floor you can look for cracks and separations at the wall bases etc. For doors not working properly these could be due to humidity swings and how the doors are built. Racking is a common issue in some settling environments, here the "reveal" of the gap around a door can be used as a clue, more gap at the top hinge side might show loose hinge screws. as do "nonparallel" spaces along the bottom of the door. Gaps along the door stops may show twist in the door itself, where one corner may stick out. In some of these cases you can reset the stop to allow the strike to engage better... with out seeing some of these its a little hard to diagnose.
KMS Woodworks
on Mar 09, 2012
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We are on a crawl space ( boo) I know... Thank you so much for your insight!! Very helpful!!!
EXOVATIONS
on Mar 09, 2012
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So many of our houses have these exact issues because of the boom-town syndrome we suffered from for decades. You may need a structural person to come take a look, otherwise you won't know to what extent the problem will continue. If the house is not going to continue to settle, the following are methods of patching that will hold up. I have seen this literally hundreds of times around here where there are wall cracks above the doors and the doors start to bind, etc. I am shocked when I go into a house and do not see these issues to one degree or another, especially multi-story houses. Best, Charles
Peace Painting Co., Inc.
on Mar 10, 2012
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@ Peace Painting Co- you are truly wonderful!!!!! Thank you!!! :)
EXOVATIONS
on Mar 13, 2012
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You are very welcome! Best, Charles
Peace Painting Co., Inc.
on Mar 13, 2012
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I definitely would get it checked out by a no partisan engineer before you ever have a "crack" company look at it. I had one of the "professional crack" companies come to my house and he pretty much said any moment it was going to crack into. I had another company come out and they said nothing wrong. So, I hired an independent engineer to come out and he said there was nothing wrong. He said if he even recommended anything it would be because of lack of integrity. A tiny bit of cracking as the house was 20 years old, but nothing to worry about. Be very very careful who you hire if you have to have something done.
Dmotan
on Mar 14, 2016
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