My wife and I noticed this crack above the door to our "game room" that is giving me the heebie jeebies. I'm hoping that it's just a crack from my son throwing something at the wall, but it looks a lot like the cracks we used to get in our old house when the foundation was settling. Which is strange since 1) none of the doors or windows or sticking and 2) the house was built in 2005 with a post-tension slab. Is this something I need to be concerned about?
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Definitely need to keep an eye on it. With the drought last year a lot of foundations started failing. I would look over your home warranty really well and see if this is covered. Might just be a sheetrock seam separating, but if you are close to the end of your warranty I would start checking it out more thoroughly. -
Post Tension will settle just like a rebar slab! It's the foundation subgrade shrinking and swelling that cause a house to settle,hopefully not in your case!Comment
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I have a post tension slab and mine still cracked. My house was built in 04 and it had started cracking before we ever moved in. I had the builder pay for foundation repair and he got the cheapest outfit he could find. I seems to be under control now but it still makes me sick to look at all the cracks we have. I have cracks in the brick morter, some doors were sticking or not latching, cracked ceramic tile, and cracks above doors.Comment
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Post tension can still fail. Read the guidelines in your warranty booklet. Slab should be covered for 10 years, but it has to meet the guidelines in the warranty booklet. Worked for several large home builders, seen many slabs fail, post tension or conventional? It all depends on your soil conditions.Comment
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Thanks gents. I'll look into the warranty info.Comment
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This. Keep the soil moisture constant around the entire slab to ensure that it doesn't settle in one spot and not the rest. A post tension foundation is designed so that the entire slab settles at the same time, but if the moisture in the soil is different in different areas, it can cause only that area to move. This can cause settlement cracks in the sheet rock.Originally posted by Chris View PostComment
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It kinda depends on where you are. When we had the foundation done they went 15 feet down in the front of the house and 25 feet down in the rear of the house before they found solid dirt. I think Texas will eventually go to pressed pilings for all houses.Originally posted by Aggiebush View PostComment
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There are a ton of variables in a slab that 90% of builders pay no attention to. I required an engineered slab and the engineer spec'd post tension after digging out 3' of soil and replacing with select fill of a known PI. Yet after all that trouble no one planned to pull cylinders or get test breaks on the concrete used.
The greatest slab design in the world goes to crap fast if you gets bad mix from the concrete plant.
By the way, when MY inspection company showed up to chart the pour and pull cylinders the concrete contractor changed the mix....
Don't know if it mattered but a year later we have no cracks at all and I feel better about it.Comment
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if youre building a foundation in Texas you need an engineered foundation based on a soils report. its gonna cost more but its well worth it. drilled bell piers is where its at. good luckComment
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Settling is normal on any house. Straight lines up and down especially on sheet rock joints are not uncommon or hard fixes. BUT, when you start having diagnal cracks at the top corners of doors and windows, then you need to be concerned. 45 degree cracks are far more serious. This will usually cause doors not to shut right and window panes to crack.Comment
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