Where are my foundation crack experts?!

Question

Ok- most cracks are above doors/doorways. But have also noticed them running the full length of the walls and also seems the cabinets are coming away from the wall. One picture is from inside the upper cabinets you can see it pulling away and cracking. Is this normal for a duplex, 60 year old house? Are these not super worrisome?? Should I have a foundation guy come out to take a look? Other than the one horizontal crack that is pictures, I do not see horizontal or zig-zag cracks anywhere else inside or outside. The exterior steps leading upstairs do have some vertical cracks and seem to be pulling away slightly from main house.

Thanks in advance!!!

Michael Gessner · Answer

@Leslie Crosten that attitude will get you far in life, heres a little education for ya, diffrent areas have diffrent soil conditions, diffrent moisture conditions, etc so many variables, when you want a bunch of people on a forum to give u advise, its beat to give the most detailed info, location, age structure type, interior exterior wall, structural wall partition wall etc.

Jim K. · Answer

Leslie, the fact that you are even asking that question speaks volumes about your lack of experience when dealing with properties like these. This is real estate investing. There is actual property in this field and actual structures on it that you should learn something about to do well in this field. Well, or you could rely on the endless kindness and patience of strangers on the internet to help you for free.

This is the same over-under duplex you were asking about previously, where you have a leakage issue with your downstairs main bath, which is lying on top of a dirt foundation. Dirt foundations are extremely rare in some parts of the country. Here in Pittsburgh, I won't buy a house if it doesn't have a full, poured-concrete or reinforced concrete-block basement. Is Pittsburgh in the Midwest? By your estimation, perhaps, by others, no.

Those cracks in a 60-year-old building with a poured concrete basement are pretty ugly for a 60-year-old property, but you took your photos pretty close-up, it would help establish scale and the actual size of the cracks if you moved the camera back a bit. In any case, cracks like that wouldn't scare me off a buy here in Pittsburgh. In a 60-year-old property built on a dirt foundation in Nebraska? I wouldn't know. Someone closer to you would be able to give you a better answer. I would also look for other settlement evidence, around the base of the house, gauge plumb in the outside walls, that kind of thing.

What you've presented, in conjunction with the fact that we don't know where it is so local people with local specialized knowledge won't be able to chime in, makes it unlikely that you're going to get a quality answer.

Leslie Crosten · Answer

@Ray Schumacher what difference would it make where I’m located to assess foundation cracks? Midwest.

Ray Schumacher · Answer

Hi Leslie

No one could answer your question BECAUSE no one knows where you are located.

Ray