A Crack in the Foundation. Is It a Problem?
You found a crack in the basement wall. Maybe it was always there and you stopped noticing it, until the home inspector wrote it up or a white stain showed under it after a hard rain. Maybe it runs from the floor to the sill plate and you can fit a fingernail in the top. Maybe the builder offered to inject it under warranty and you would like someone who is not selling the repair to look first.
I'm Travis Busch, a licensed Connecticut PE. I come out, look at the crack and the rest of the house, and write you a sealed letter that says what it is, what it is not, and what to do next. That letter is the product. Not a verdict on the phone, not a repair quote.
What I actually look at
A crack by itself tells you very little. What it is doing, and what the rest of the house is doing around it, tells you most of it. On the visit I check:
- Where it is. A crack under a window, at a corner, or where the footing steps down behaves differently from one in the middle of a flat wall.
- Which way it runs. Vertical, diagonal and horizontal cracks come from different causes, and a horizontal crack in a block wall gets more of my attention than a vertical one in a poured wall.
- How wide it is, top to bottom, with a gauge, so the letter has numbers and not adjectives.
- Whether one side has moved past the other, in or out or up or down. Offset is the sign that matters more than width.
- Whether it goes through, leaks, or has leaked before. Staining and mineral deposits tell the history even when the wall is dry today.
- What sits on top of it. The sill, the floor framing above, and the floor itself. I run a level through the rooms above and look at the doors and the drywall.
- What is outside. Grading, downspouts, a porch slab or driveway pitched toward the wall, the age of the pour.
- Whether there are others. Two cracks tell you more than one, and I would rather see all of them on the same visit.
In the towns the state has mapped for pyrrhotite I also look for the pattern that aggregate problem leaves, and I will tell you if that is what I think I am looking at.
What you get
A signed and sealed letter from a Connecticut PE, written for you and usable by anyone you hand it to: a buyer, a seller, a contractor, your insurer, the town. It covers what I saw and measured, what I think it means and what it does not mean, and the next step. The next step is sometimes a waterproofing contractor, sometimes a geotechnical engineer, sometimes a dated pencil mark and a second look in a few months, and sometimes a repair I write up so a contractor can build it. When the repair needs a drawing, you get the drawing.
One honest limit: one visit gives you observations and a well founded opinion, not certainty about the ground under your house. If the question is in the soil, I say so and name who answers it, rather than guessing at it under my seal.
What it costs
One fixed price, quoted on the first call before any work starts. Half is due at the visit, check, cash or card, and the rest when the letter is ready. The price covers the visit, the letter and any questions you have about it. Looking at a second or third crack on the same visit is a small difference, not a second fee.
When you do not need an engineer
If the crack is a hairline, has not changed since you first saw it, lets in no water, and nothing else in the house has moved, a lot of people are right to watch it. Mark both ends with a pencil, write the date and the width, and look again in six months. If it only leaks and nothing has moved, a waterproofing contractor fixes that, not an engineer. Call me when it is wider than a hairline, when one side is offset, when it is new or growing, when the wall is bowing, or when someone is about to make a decision off it: a purchase, a repair, a claim.
Questions homeowners ask
Is a vertical crack in a poured concrete wall serious?
Usually it is the least worrying kind, and sometimes it is not. Poured walls shrink as they cure and a narrow vertical crack is often that. What changes the answer is width, whether one face is pushed past the other, whether it leaks, whether it is still growing, and what the framing above and the ground outside are doing. That is what the visit sorts out.
Can you tell me over the phone or from photos whether the crack is a problem?
No, and I will not guess at it. I give you a price and a date on the call. The opinion is written, after I have measured the crack and seen the rest of the house. Photos before the visit do help: text me whatever you have and I will go through them the night before.
Will you design the repair?
When the fix is framing, a post or a beam or a sister, yes, the letter says what to build and a contractor can price it. When the fix is in the foundation itself or in the ground, the letter names the right specialist and what to ask them for. I do not design foundation repairs, and I say so before you book.
My builder or a repair company wants to inject the crack. Should I let them?
A crack that only leaks is often fixed that way. Before anyone fills it, you want to know whether it is moving, because filling a moving crack hides the evidence and does not stop the movement. That is a fair reason to have someone who is not selling the repair look at it first.
Do you look at pyrrhotite (crumbling) foundations?
I will look at a foundation in an affected town and write what I see. Whether the concrete has pyrrhotite is a laboratory question, not a visual one, and the state's CFSIC program has its own testing and approval path. If that is where your house is headed, I will tell you so, and in some cases the right answer is that program, not me.
How to book
Call or text (860) 519-6009 and describe it in a sentence or two. Tell me the town, how long the crack has been there, and whether a sale or a contractor is waiting on the answer. You get one price and a date on that call. Text me whatever photos you have before then and I will show up knowing your house.
Related: Water in the basement, settling, and walls that moved · A structural look before you buy · A whole-house structural assessment