can I buy house Horizontal crack in basement wall?

[Tom Raymond]

Kust,

I only noticed one of the last three earth quakes to hit NY, the vibrate setting on my cell phone is more violent.

It seems you are over-thinking things a bit.

[Steven Hockstein]

If there is a major earthquake in Middletown NY, your foundation crack will be the least of your problems. If this thought makes you nervous I would probably not go into the schools, stores, religious buildings, etc.. in your city because most of them are not built with earthquake resistant construction.

My advice is to take a deep breath, exhale slowly, and repeat. Maybe a couple of shots of a good drink or a valium can help.

Seriously, you are buying a house and we all know it is a major investment for most people. Nothing is a sure thing but most house problems are repairable and not life changing. If you like the house, the price is fair, and you can afford to live in it, then take the plunge. If the possibility of the foundation cracking along a cold joint is your biggest worry about the house, you are doing better than most. Enjoy your new home and be happy that you have the opportunity to buy a house.

[hausdok]

For the record, kust posted this here on my recommendation.

He'd written to me via email and I'd already opined that it was a cold joint between pours. My only concern was the unknowns - the possibility of below-grade movement next to the foundation. Backfilling foundations properly with the right mix of soil and stone in New York State's winters is an art. Do it wrong and you can have a mess on your hands. That said, this is a 7-year old house. If there was anything like that going on, it almost certainly would have manifested itself by now.

All that an inspector can tell from any of those photos, and probably in person, is that it's clearly a cold joint between two pours. It's not the end of the world. There will be rebar in those walls helping to keep those halves aligned.

If he's worried about infiltration, there's not a whole lot there to worry about. Based on those photos I don't think I'd ever recommend anything beyond what his inspector did. If he wants a warm and fuzzy maybe patching the cold joint is the way to go; but, though I agree with Jim that patching is best done from outside I think there are ways to do it from the inside that can be pretty effective too - it's just a lot of work. He can grind out an inverted V at the joint and fill it with a urethane sealant and then apply crystalline waterproofing material to the face of the entire wall.

Patching it from the inside will keep out water but there's no way that anyone looking at those walls can know what's going to happen on the outside of that foundation - patched or not - without knowing how drainage is configured and how that foundation was backfilled and with what.

Kust, you want assurances; nobody here can give you those; neither can the inspector you hired nor an engineer. Inspectors can reduce your risk when you buy but they can't eliminate it completely because there will always be plenty of unknowns - such as what's going on below grade adjacent to that foundation. The engineer can't tell you much either unless he/she performs some invasive testing.

In this case, I don't think the inspector's recommendation to keep an eye on it is so far out of line. I agree that telling someone to monitor something is often inspectorspeak used to cover one's ass, but there are times when you can't do anything but continue to watch something for which your inspector couldn't provide solid answers. That doesn't make the inspector incompetent; just not endowed with super powers of x-ray vision. Let's face it, if he said, "It's a cold joint between two pours and nothing bad will ever happen," and something bad does happen, you're going to be pretty unhappy. You've already shown here that despite multiple folks telling you that they don't think there is going to be an issue you're still fretting about it. Despite some of what's been said here about the value of the inspection you received, I don't see where the inspector did anything wrong. I wonder how many of us, given the limited information available, would have reported anything differently or would not have told him to keep his eye on it.

Kust, if you don't feel comfortable with it, don't buy the home. It's that simple. We all have an inner voice. When we ignore our inner voice and something goes wrong later on, most of us are pretty upset with ourselves and everyone and everything related to the issue. If we listen to that inner voice and nothing bad ever happens we usually don't fret about it because we've moved on, but if something bad does happen and we learn about it we are invariably pretty pleased with ourselves for having been so astute that we avoided the bullet.

If you walk away, one warning and that goes back to what I said above - nobody can guaranty you the perfect home and no inspector can assuage your fears of the unknowns associated with those things the inspector was unable to know. There is ALWAYS risk associated with purchasing a home. If you are unwilling to assume any risk, you're better off not buying and continuing to rent, because a house is one huge maintenance item that's waiting to be worked on. It's in a constant race with its owner; the house wants to return to the earth and become compost and the owner is the goalkeeper preventing the house from reaching that goal. If you can't accept that reality and don't want to be a goalkeeper, home ownership is not for you.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[gtblum]

All that an inspector can tell from any of those photos, and probably in person, is that it's clearly a cold joint between two pours. It's not the end of the world. There will be rebar in those walls helping to keep those halves aligned.

Exactly.

I'm not sure I would give a cold joint a second look, let alone, worry about it.

Think about how forty foot shear walls are poured for high rises. It's not done in one jump. Same goes for concrete stacks, elevator shafts, stairwells, and cooling towers. If I remember right, It's a minimum of seven days before you can safely move the forms up to continue a pour. Doesn't that start every new section with a cold joint?

I realize those pours are terminated in a more uniform manor than this one but, we're also looking at an eight foot wall as opposed to twenty feet.

[kust]

Thank you everyone. Please let me know if you have some things to say on the crack.

[kust]

I will hire a structural engineer, but I want to know all structural engineer have experience in horizontal crack ? Who can recommend structural engineer around Middletown , NY?

Thank you.

[Steven Hockstein]

Spend your money how you want. I would bet he does not tell you much more than you read here. Just more words.

[kurt]

What Hockstein said.

I have yet to meet any structural engineer that is well versed in residential construction; they don't teach it at university. University training is about engineering, not figuring out a simple cold pour line.

You will get someone that says it's fine, another that says it's bad, another that will want to put steel beams in the house, another that will want foundation core samples, several that will want to excavate the exterior to look at the other side, etc., etc.

Go for it. Engineers need work too. I think you could keep a lot of engineers busy for a long time. It's good for the economy.

[Tom Raymond]

Whoever you hire, make sure that they speak your native tongue. You clearly are having trouble comprehending this in English.

[kust]

Please recommend structural engineer around Middletown , NY, I couldn't find. Thanks.

[gtblum]

Please recommend structural engineer around Middletown , NY, I couldn't find. Thanks.

Maybe that explains how the wall ended up like that.

[Steven Hockstein]

I am done with this thread. Not sure if it is the language barrier, excessive worry, or just wanting to keep this dribble alive. Maybe we are being pranked. Good luck with your crack. Remember, crack kills (i.e. Whitney).

[kurt]

I agree.

[kust]

You mean you can do structural inspection this home? I have a translator, do not worry.

[kurt]

OK, I'm still here for a few more seconds, so I'll answer.

No. You're on your own. The smartest guys I know have given you very good advice, and you've chosen to override their good advice with your opinions.

Done now, over and out.

[Brandon Whitmore]

Wow...

[Bill Kibbel]

Some folks seeking "advice" already have their minds made up. They just want others to reinforce their decision.

Some other folks don't listen to anything except what they want to hear.

[Marc]

I doubt its a prank...just a really nervous first-time buyer.

Just my opinion.

Marc

[Mike Lamb]

Wow...

My sentiments exactly.

I strongly recommend you do not buy this house. Not to scare you but a minor tremor, an aggressive tree root, a major argument in the kitchen, and you will wake up some morning with your first floor in the basement.

[kust]

This is not prank, I am woman and first buy home , I do not know about home, so just lean from all of you. Thank you for your replies, I will think everybody's advice.