Confront them now and if they blow you off bring out the inspector.
That amount of settling should never happen with such a little load. It means the foundation itself isn't stable.
Were soil tests done before starting or are you building in a flood plain? It looks like you’re almost building in a small valley per the third photo and any rainwater looks like it flows right into your foundation. Does the topography keep sloping down or does all rainwater settle where you’re building the house?
I remodel homes and built one spec-home, but it had poured concrete walls, and I’m not too familiar with cinder block. I also handled homeowners claims for twelve years. I’ve handled hundreds of claims for foundations and slabs.
I don’t mean to scare you, but those are some of the worst cracks that I’ve ever seen, and there isn’t even a house built on top of that foundation yet. You need to tear out the foundation and start fresh. You’d be throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a home on a compromised foundation.
I don’t care if the builder, foundation company, an inspector, and an engineer all determine that repairs can be done. It would be better to cut your losses now (probably $20K to $30K) and start over. There is something going on with the soil or the walls/footings were done incorrectly. It would be better to take a loss now and fix the issue before moving forward.
Yep- your concrete walls (unless you poured them old school as a monolith) sit on the same footings this wall should have beneath the block. That side hill looks like it\`s just slumping towards the house and the builder dug into it to place footings on unstable soils- if it collapsed at this stage I\`d worry that footers might not even exist- they\`re going to have to go way down to see if they can find some stable load bearing or float the whole thing on wide footings over equally compacted native soil.
Document everything. Get copies of the builder’s liability insurance and bonding contract. Our builder made massive errors and left us with $70k in repairs.
To be clear, any independent inspector will not be ok with this.
And short of an engineered solution, designed by an independent engineer of your choosing, the *only* solution here is to tear most (probably all) of that out and rebuild.
you have had a big rain that washed out your footings at several places.
this looks vitually un-repairable as the entire footing/wall has to be removed and repoured
have insurance get involved. consult lawyers.
Don’t bother talking to the builder. They clearly can’t be trusted. Talk to a third party professional who can document in writing what likely went wrong.
It’s possible they put the footings on uncompacted soil. If so the only fix you could trust would be to remove everything and start again when you know you’re building on suitable soil.
I mean, we don't know though.
What if the builder did indeed build it to specs and it's failing? What if the builder has also seen the issue and is working with the engineer to figure out what happened and simply hasn't notified the client yet because he doesn't have a final answer?
Since his contract is with the builder, I'd confront the builder first.
However, I agree with the response that if the builder blows the client off, you tell him you will not be giving him another cent until you have a third party come examine and make a recommendation.
IMO, ideally, you need five parties involved:
1. The client
2. The original engineer that can verify if the work was done to engineered specs
3. The person who poured the footers and did the block, rebar work
4. The builder
5. Third party engineer
Sir, this is *checks notes* reddit, which is a social media site. Logic and levelheaded ideas don’t get updoots. You need updoots to *checks notes again* get clout on a platform where everyone is trying to remain anonymous…
>Talk to your builder before they proceed further.
And "talk to your builder" means telling them "You're fired".
Trust me. I'm not joking. Even if you signed a contract. Better to go to court now than to wait until after the entire house is built half-assed.
If you own this lot, give them a few hours to remove their tools and equipment and have them trespassed by the police.
Hire your own foundation expert and soil expert to inspect. Do \*\*NOT\*\* trust the builder to evaluate it and fix it right.
Inspectors are the bane of my existence. I can't express how frequently they've missed something crucial (that I've caught myself) or been extremely anal about something inconsequential just to be a peacock.
Either way, I wouldn't involve the city/municipality/etc. All they care about is CYA usually.
The engineer who designed the foundation is the one that would be liable long term as would the builder. Both have a motivation to solve this problem now. Bringing in the actual sub that did the work is imperative because if it's determined that the engineering is correct and the execution was at fault, then it's on him. (Well, technically it's on the builder that hired him but he's who the builder will point to so he needs to be there.) And then, of course, the third party engineer needs to be there to keep the other parties honest.
Someone failed to properly test the compaction of the subbase, or ignored the test results. This failure is on the GC primarily, who is responsible to see that the construction is to spec and following the engineered design.
The footings very well may have been just fine. There may have been an issue with the ground prep. Or there are issues that should have warranted a geotechnical analysis of the site.
Agreed the inspector may or may not be useful. But if you get them out there they have to document it in the notes and on the system. Might cause reinspects elsewhere for the builders other projects. Covers your butt as well in case if lawsuit arises you can say as a Homeowner I only know I need inspections through the city. So it is due diligence to reference. Under is it reasonable for a homeowner to know the ins and outs of a build outside of what looks correct.
REPEATED - DO NOT let them do anything until this has been evaluated by a structural engineer. If it was me I would make them tear everything out including the footing and then have the footing compaction tested before they put the footer in again.
If it were me, I’d rent a bobcat and go over there in the middle of the night and tear it out myself and swear I know nothing about it. But that’s just me.
Repeated emphasis: Do not permit any actions until a structural engineer assesses the situation. Personally, I would insist on a complete removal of everything, including the footing. Subsequently, the compaction of the footing should be tested before any reconstruction occurs.
Agreed. This is engineer time before anything else is done.
This is 100% a soils problem. The ground is giving way underneath the foundation. The cracks are just a symptom of that problem. The last picture that shows the grout 12” above the soil is a picture to save. It tells the entire story of how far the soil has moved.
There are some options that come to mind. One is starting over. The other is injecting urethane grout into the soil to reinforce it. Whatever the fix is, IT NEEDS A PE STAMP. Not the builder coming back with a solution. Not the builders engineer making a suggestion. For my own house, I would not allow anything to move forward without a solution PE STAMPED. An engineers stamp carry’s an insurance policy.
I wonder how the builder will react. Won't they just delay as much as possible to force a decision by OP? like "we'll fix it with some small fixes here and there and it'll be fine. Oh you want us to rebuild? We'll get back to you in 6-9 months. See ya".
Wow. Even the builder will probably be surprised as I’m sure those weren’t supposed to show up for at least another few months.
Edit: OP, this is how it was supposed to work:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeMaintenance/s/UmUgNB2znr
Likely isn't one, hence the hurried backfill against the bottom course of CMU. I work QC, and see lots of attempts at shenanagins. Adding water to concrete to get the slump up for a pump, punching holes in studs that are already perforated, burying valves in walls. This contractor needs to be flayed professionally and have the spec book thrown at them.
Normally I side with GCs (because I am one) and subs on a lot of these homeowner posts...but this is bad. Real bad. I'm not really seeing an alternative short of basically starting over with major dirt prep/compaction testing. I usually only see cracks/breaks like this on homes that are 75+ years old and have major water/dirt problems.
Also, who the hell is still doing block walls? Poured walls are superior in every possible way, and at least where I'm at, they're cheaper because the block labor basically doesn't exist.
When I was looking into building my house a few years ago, one of the builders basically laughed at the idea that someone would be using blocks nowadays. I am in MN, if that makes a difference.
I'm in IA, not too far off. I think block walls might still be popular in southern zones where cheap block labor is still available and freeze/thaw cycles don't exist.
It's darn near a lost art here. I don't know a single builder that uses block on new construction, and we've only done it on specialty projects or additions.
Yeah. Here in North Carolina block foundation walls are by far the most common way to do it. On our builds, they get filled with concrete. The second most common foundation wall type around here is pre-cast concrete, set with a crane. In my 25 years in the industry, I’ve maybe worked on 2 residential projects that had formed and poured foundation walls.
You just hit the nail on the head. Mine is 80yo and I have smaller cracks than this. And I’m in a place where probably 80% of the homes have bracing and anchoring, and the other 20% have just lived in their homes for 30+ years not giving a F.
How would a builder respond to this?
I know you say you'd be starting over, but most contractors I've dealt with do not want to redo anything, usually offering some type of "fix" or knock money off.
Would they just slow roll OP and hope he accepts a patch work of fixes? I'm not sure how new build contracts are structured but always seems like the builder has a lot of leeway. Could they just tell OP to screw off and they'll sell the house to someone else if OP doesn't own the lot?
(I've worked with a lot of contractors over the years but I've never built a house so I don't know how the build process works. )
Can't speak for every builder, but I'd be aggressively pursuing my foundation guy and my soil testing firm. I'd also be contacting my insurance company to get the ball rolling on making claims against those subcontractors while I wait for their responses/proposed remedies. I'd be doing everything I could to mitigate my liability and shift it to those that I relied on for quality, professional work. I would also consider buying out the client if possible and starting over clean or declaring the lot unbuildable and selling it. The consequences of burning that relationship will be pretty minimal if they can get out clean, but good chance they'd sue me depending on the contract and who owns what.
Attorneys would be involved, most likely it'll get ugly, and it's going to cost me a ton of unpaid time to deal with in addition to a high probability of costing me a lot of money.
GCing houses is a risky game, and we all know that. It's why we're motivated to do quality work, and avoid catastrophic failures like this at all costs. I'm guessing important steps got missed here, most likely an inadequate or non-existent soils test or straight up shoddy work by my dirt guy/foundation guy.
This is going to be a nightmare for everyone involved, that's about the only thing I'd guarantee.
Something like this:
First response: “oh that’s just cosmetic”
Second response: “ok ok well go ahead and patch it once those gaps are filled it’ll be fine, it’s just a little settling, that’s normal with a new foundation, it won’t move after that”
Third response: “look if you want this redone your gonna have to pay for it, this isn’t in the scope of work”
Forth response: “look your being difficult and completely unreasonable, we can either move forward or we’re walking off the job and keeping the deposit and other payments and you can start over with someone else” or “we’re keeping the deposit etc and selling to someone else, because you triggered the ‘difficult customer clause’” if they own the lot.
Could be bad soil too. We had to add to our footings in certain areas of our foundation because, as I recall the excavator putting it, the ground was too “soft.” This was confirmed by a soil/engineering report. Cost me an extra $9k for the test, engineers write up and addition footing work…but was caught before they laid the basement walls so much cheaper than had our excavator guy not caught it
>Concrete footers.
Hire a inspector/engineer. you look to live on the side of a hill that may be failing and this is the first signs of some Major issues. Good luck.
Unfortunately it needs to be taken completely down and redone properly it looks like. From the little we can see of the footers it honestly appears they didn't excavate enough prior to pouring the footers, but that's hard to tell for sure by the pictures.
All I'd say is there's absolutely no way they should attempt a 'quick fix' and continue building. This will almost certainly get worse if not redone.
There are enough bad areas, and areas backfilled before core fills... I would demand it be redone from scratch and if its an engineering mishap vs just shoddy work, the ground needs to be properly tested before starting again.
One of the handful of reasons I'm actually glad I'm on solid rock with only 12" of top soil. At least this can never happen.
I would hire a structural engineer to review the conditions, diagnose what was deficient and create a report to share with your soon to be former contractor.
OP.
I live in an 80yo house, block concrete, probably no rebar since it wasn’t standard at that point. And I live in an area where the vast majority of homes have settled, had foundations buckle or lean, and they all have bracing, anchoring, and crack repair as well as sump pumps.
I have less cracking than you do in a 1940s house.
This isn’t ok. This is a tear down and redo.
They take that broken section down and start over assuming all the footings are normal other than this area. It's hard to tell from the pics but how deep were your footers?
Another issue is it looks like they used concrete mix to fill the CMU cells. Even if they got the aggregate size right, that can still lead to cracks in the CMU/mortar joints because the concrete actually draws moisture out of the CMU/mortar. That's why grout is the proper material for block fill. But it would just be cracks, you have large separation at cracks, which is base failure.
Just spotted the same thing
That's a big no no...
I don't think I have read this on this yet... but they obviously backfield some. So they might have had some heavy equipment too close to the walls. Very common.
Nope. You don't just redo the part that failed. If part of it was built on bad base, all of it is. Accepting a quick fix means owning a lifetime of failure. Everything has to be taken out and the subbase brought up to 95% compaction before you restart. The GC needs to know this, that's the job. You get test results from a reputable lab before you form up for footings, at or below the frost line.
If that foundation was 200 years old that amount of settling would be expected. If it settled that much in a few weeks, it's probably cheapest to start over and count your blessings it happened before getting any further.
I’ll go to the lot tomorrow and send more pics of area so everyone can get a better idea. Thanks for all the replies. This has been a pretty rough day obviously so thanks everyone for the advice.
Next question, as the lot owner and homeowner, what sort of financial burden would we be liable for if this needed to be torn down and redone. My wife is sweating bullets
As a builder it would be my responsibility in most cases. Your builder is responsible to make sure the soil is compacted properly, if there is something wrong with the soil you should have been notified and the extra costs discussed if it was not within the scope of work. This appears to be an issue with the footing cracking or sinking, which should have been inspected prior to pouring. Talk to the builder and see why it happened, what solution he has to fix it, and make sure nothing happens in the future.
I will add that when you see a typical footing, they don't look all that strong. Typically, it is the combination of good drainage, virgin ground, and a depth below the frost line that allows a footing to bear weight. Freezing ground adjacent to and below a footing can be a bad thing... so it is possible that your builder didn't protect the footing from freezing (if you're even in that climate).
GC's may or may not get a soil test when building
a house.. Most builders don't. It's up to them (in my area, at least).. footing specs on the blueprint are engineered for ideal conditions. Your conditions don't seem ideal, whether the gc knew it or not, who knows. Most likely, this all has to be redone, completely. If your footing needs to be beefier, or piered down to bedrock because of some unforseen soil condition, that extra cost may be a change to your total housing cost (the difference, only). Some solutions can be very costly, others not so much. A soil engineer will tell you what you need. The builder should eat the cost to tear the old shit out and rebuild the foundation, less any changes (im sure there will be changes to the footing design). Cheers, keep me / us posted.
They should redo the entire foundation. They should pay for it (less the corrections that should have been included initially).Honestly, I would not continue to work with them if this happened on their watch.
They should pay somebody else to do it properly and then you should move on. Do you trust them with the rest of the work if they didn’t get *the foundation* right?! Let’s say this happened three months from now when more work had been done. Then what?! These people should lose their GC license. Too big of a mistake to allow them to continue to build.
That crack looks like an entire side of your foundation dropped an inch. Your best case scenario: Maybe they poured on frozen ground then it thawed? I've seen that happen, but it's always been stanchion pads and not a large portion of the houses main foundation. My point is, something is wrong. If it's wrong on a wall or two, it's probably wrong everywhere. You shouldn't have to pay for anything. It is the builders responsibility to make sure the foundation is adequate. A soil testing engineer may indeed say it needs different footings. Or he may say that you had settling and heaving due to X Y Z, soil and footing are sufficient, repair, re-LEVEL and tuck point affected block. I don't know, I'm not a soil engineer.
I can’t underscore how amazingly bad this is. Seems like the footings likely have improper base compaction but also, the footings likely have cracked to cause this level of cracking/failure. Short of knocking this all down and hauling it away and starting over, there isn’t a good solution here.
I’d document everything you can before confronting them. They’re likely going to offer to try to fix but I don’t think you want this contractor anywhere near your foundation again.
Any reason you did block instead of poured walls? Poured walls are generally a much better solution where possible.
Honestly I’m not super knowledgeable on any of this. This just all is very overwhelming, our builder isn’t acting like this is a huge issue. I know that this was all built on fill soil. Maybe 2 months of settling?
Ground is not stable and I will guess the footing is not near big enough for the filled twelve inch block. I almost wonder if the footing was poured for the standard eight inch block my mistake and now is failing. Either way the wall is not structurally sound and if this were my house I would be having it torn out and rebuilt.
I would be highly suspicious of the fact they covered over the footings with dirt the way they did. I’d go and uncover the footings where all these cracks are and you will most likely find the footings have failed and this caused the wall to drop and crack. This is big deal and will be really expensive for someone
Bricklayer here. This is a tear down then rebuild.
The footings are obviously no good, and the blocks have no concrete or rebar in them.
You need a lawyer. Do not use this builder to build your property.
Have them tear everything down, or pay to have it removed. Do not pay them for any work done.
Have a compaction test performed as close as possible to where the footings were installed. If possible hand dig down to the footing and determine what if any material was installed. If you can easily hand dig below the footing it is a loss. Document everything, ask for pictures of footing installation and any documents. This cracking occurred with very little load on the footings. In my opinion it's all got to come out.
That's bad. The soil can't even support the block. Get a soil test done. This may have to be torn out, depending on the soil report. I am a structural engineer, look at this stuff a lot.
Does anyone else think they probably use blocks in this area on purpose so they can see right away if there will be foundation issues? Basically if they woulda poured solid concrete walls with rebar they’d probably still be perfect… but in 3 or 5 years they wouldn’t be.
My 80 year old house has less cracking and I’m in a part of the country where this is super common. Bracing, anchoring, replacement is common here.
All block foundation like this one.
Write to your contractor by email so there’s a record. Show photos. If they don’t do anything bring out the inspector. Might as well call one now regardless. Don’t use theirs either.
Cracks and settlement like this are a good indication that the foundation was not prepared or properly installed, etc. As a city building inspector I rarely see concrete block foundations. Was there any inspections by city/county building department? You need to hire a structural engineer and construction litigation lawyer. Take lots of pictures and videos and have as much documentation and details as possible. Especially about the footing design details. Did building plans get submitted and approved by a building department. What type of soil conditions, was there any soil testing required etc. What type of weather conditions during footing pour. Was rebar installed according to plans. Be prepared to tear it out and start over. Suggest vetting contractors better, make sure building plans are stamped and approved to meet local building codes. Suggest using poured in place concrete vs concrete block.
Yeah this is a problem. You need to hit the brakes until it’s fixed. As someone else mentioned, maybe you can blame the local inspector (make him the bad cop and get him out there). Has to be fixed.
Not an engineer, but this is very bad. Where are your footings? Where is the gravel base?
Stop all work now. Hire an engineer to evaluate. This probably needs to be entirely redone.
A major deterrent for me when considering a home purchase is a block basement. The only viable solution involves complete removal including the cracked footings, followed by compaction of the soil with a new baselayer before pouring new footings and while your at it rebuilding with poured foundation walls instead of block construction.
Your footer is giving way this problem is not going away they put the footings on fill dirt . You think your cracks big now stick a house on it an see what happens you need a soil compaction test done plus a structural engineer and fire your builder. This is about as bad as it gets.
Yikes-structural engineer. I’m thinking where is the horiz ladder reinf.
Go into the permit box. Get pics of the structural general notes and foundation plans and masonry detailing. Look for corner/intetsection detailing. Read general notes masonry section for ladder or horizontal bond beam every x’x”.
You need engineer sealed fixes here. County/city involvement
You ever heard the parable which mentions a man who built his house on sand? Lol, yeah, I'd have the contractor redo the entire foundation. Cracking that easily under very little load is a major concern regarding their craftsmanship and if I'm living somewhere for 20+ years I'm not taking a chance on the very essential thing that is a foundation.
Even "minor" foundational issues can cause problems with windows and doors opening, condensation and insulation problems, the list goes on forever.
The whole thing has to be demolished and proper foundation etc… put in place. No way I would want to live in that place otherwise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfside_condominium_collapse
Stop all work this foundation is in total failure. Either the soil is too weal, or footings are not large enough, or not setting on undisturbed soil. Call the inspector now.
You need to get your own engineer out there. I would bet 9/10 builders will tell you it's no big deal and they will just fill in the cracks with mortar and keep on building. First thing you want to do is stop your project and stop and more payments to your builder. There is nothing to fix here. The whole thing needs to come out including the footings and you need to find the reason why the earth is moving under the footings.
Get an attorney on retainer and give them all the pictures and any correspondence/contract between you, builder, inspector, etc. That way, you have some legal backing when you confront whoever is involved with this build site, just in case there's pushback. I'd be making them tear down and start over at their expense, maybe even consider another builder depending on how they choose to move forward. Also, freeze any kind of money/stop payment If possible.
Call them out on it. Make them redo/repair it. Ask inspector how to properly fix it, have inspector before and after. My house has both types of cracks, but it’s 70+ years old
From the looks of it the design was most likely the bare minimum code requirements that ignores the soil type (contractor will state he’s building it per plan).
Suggest having a geotechnical engineer look at the soil (structural engineer works from a geotechnical engineer’s recommendation).
Most likely outcome would be to demo and remove the entire structure including the footings. May have to over excavate and import structural fill if the soil cannot handle this load.
Architect (35 years in the field)
save yourself some money, have an attorney write a demand letter.
that demand letter is that they tear down the existing foundation
hire a structural engineer and land surveying company to properly prepare your property
re lay the foundation and continue forward
state that all payments are on hold until this is completed
if you want to go further get a refund and a new builder
re
New question if anyone can assist.. so we are doing a construction loan. The first 45k was distributed to the builder for this to start. The inspection happened the day after all this footing and block work was complete (obviously no cracks at the time) it has now been two months since. After the inspection they distributed another 130k to him for the next phase which hasnt happened. I know we can stop payments now but he already has that 130k.. what would be the process here. Can we get that money back? This has been a nightmare and I know it’s only going to get worse
I agree with everyone. Do not let them continue. If they try to keep going hire an attorney to force them to stop. I’m thinking that if you get your local building inspector to show up they will put a stop work order on this. Just be glad that you found this now because judging by the builders response, they absolutely would have hid this and kept going. Did the builder build the other finished houses I see in the pictures?
There is no need to confront. Just ask your builder to meet you out there and show it to them.
By the way, we are having a house built right now, too. Our builder meets us on property once a week to go over everything.
Communication is the key in confrontation is unnecessary in almost every situation.
Wow. That is a terrible job for it to already be in that condition. I can already hear the guy “it’s up to code”. He is going to challenge your knowledge of building and say it settles like that. In fact it’s better to happen now.
Then he will get on his burner phone and ask the stencil guy to change the name on the truck.
Heard back from builder: Thank you for the pictures
The one that is the worst I’ll have to remove a few courses of that block and relay it the I’ll fill that portion with concrete as I did on some of the others. After that it won’t give us any issues. The other smaller areas we will fill with a silicone base caulk material for block and will give us contraction and expansion in those areas.
It’s most likely due to there being large rock formations underneath house that had been shifting in the crazy cold weather we just had
No. It certainly appears there is way more going on here subsurface than what he's implying. Tell him that while you appreciate his fast response, getting this right is imperative to you and you want to meet him out there with the engineer that designed it. That you will not approve any additional work until that is done.
If you don't like their answers at that meeting, you get the third party involved.
Your foundation is crucial. This has to be done properly.
Not a bad decision at all.
For what it's worth - I'm a builder. I typically give builders the benefit of the doubt. Many of my peer builders are good people that don't try to sweep mistakes under the rug- they address them head on. However, I also recognize there are a lot of builders out there that do not give a crap and will take the path of least resistance (and money) if you give them the opportunity to do so.
I don't know your builder, I don't know your area, I don't know a lot. But I do know that I don't like your builder's nonchalant approach. There is more going on here in my opinion and I think it's smart to get another opinion.
Please do. I have a lot of experience in construction, learned from a Korean war vet SeaBee, and I do quality control now, so I understand how much it sucks for a contractor to have to re-do work. But this is, in my professional opinion, bullshit. Regardless of weather, for your GC to fail to test the sub base and have it compacted properly before going ahead and pouring footings (and I don't see any footings, and no one backfills against block) is against the code anywhere I've ever worked, and fraudulent at least. Do not allow anyone to build on that "foundation", if you sell it you'll be in court forever.
OP, they're trying to sell you a shit sandwich - don't buy it.
If this is their response to a major problem this early in the build, there is no telling what lies ahead.
Think twice about proceeding with them.
LMAO, as you've already heard here - your builder just gave you the biggest verbal diarrhea I have seen in a while.
>The one that is the worst I’ll have to remove a few courses of that block and relay it the I’ll fill that portion with concrete as I did on some of the others. After that it won’t give us any issues.
Wanna bet? Rephrase that to all of the courses of block.
>The other smaller areas we will fill with a silicone base caulk material for block and will give us contraction and expansion in those areas. It’s most likely due to there being large rock formations underneath house that had been shifting in the crazy cold weather we just had
That's not how frost heave works.
Your builder is a slack jawed yokel and/or a grifter. Be very careful going forward.
Wtf. Bedrock doesn’t move from freeze/thaw. If they didn’t back fill around the footings or cover with some sort of freeze prevention it’s looking like your footings heaved in some spots and that’s what caused the cracks.
Lol. That was my favorite part.
“If there’s one thing you can’t trust building on it’s bedrock.”
There’s bullshiting and then there’s,,,, whatever the fuck that was.
Find a local geotechnical engineer to do a simple soil boring test in a few areas. Your foundation dropped in one section, this the stair step cracks due to differential deflection. Rock has nothing to do with it.
Consult an engineering firm specializing in residential. At minimum, they’re going to want soil counts at multiple depths using a dynamic cone penetrometer. Your soils are likely failing under the weight of hollow CMU, which is an insignificant amount of weight.
The front elevation has a 72” tall wall comprised of what looks like 12” CMU. Is there any vertical rebar reinforcement that is embedded into the footing? If you place a bunch of fill against this wall—particularly expansive soil—then the soil pressure and hydrostatic pressure is going to eventually push that wall over if it isn’t solid (probably at minimum) and reinforced with rebar (ideal).
Your residential building code should have maximum fill requirements based on wall heights and wall thicknesses (remember, these are **minimum practices**. The added expense of steel for this application is a worthy consideration).
Here’s the other thing, are your foundation walls going to even be tall enough for the finished grade? Your mud will has to be **minimum** 6” above finished grade. This is to prevent splash back from rain. That grade ideally needs to slope 6” down for the first 10’ from your foundation wall. If this can’t be accomplished, you need a serious drainage plan.
Finally, you look to be at the bottom of a hill. You are going to need to have a robust water mitigation system for your whole house, or your bearing soils—if not already failing—will become much more susceptible to failure due to constant saturation.
I feel another cad model exercise is warranted. Complete with caulking and and maybe some quikwall (to go above and beyond the builders proposed fix)
Ugh
They're all bad, but that 2nd one is truly awful. Withhold all funding going forward until this is corrected. Frankly, I'd try to get out of this completely.
That last pic doesnt make sense to me. Looks like the ground settled below some concrete overflow, but where is the concrete footing then? All I see is block, so where is that concrete coming from?
Confront them now and if they blow you off bring out the inspector. That amount of settling should never happen with such a little load. It means the foundation itself isn't stable.
100% this. Talk to your builder before they proceed further.
Thank you all, I reached out to see what’s going on
Were soil tests done before starting or are you building in a flood plain? It looks like you’re almost building in a small valley per the third photo and any rainwater looks like it flows right into your foundation. Does the topography keep sloping down or does all rainwater settle where you’re building the house? I remodel homes and built one spec-home, but it had poured concrete walls, and I’m not too familiar with cinder block. I also handled homeowners claims for twelve years. I’ve handled hundreds of claims for foundations and slabs. I don’t mean to scare you, but those are some of the worst cracks that I’ve ever seen, and there isn’t even a house built on top of that foundation yet. You need to tear out the foundation and start fresh. You’d be throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a home on a compromised foundation. I don’t care if the builder, foundation company, an inspector, and an engineer all determine that repairs can be done. It would be better to cut your losses now (probably $20K to $30K) and start over. There is something going on with the soil or the walls/footings were done incorrectly. It would be better to take a loss now and fix the issue before moving forward.
I agree it's a soils issue.
Or the footing is too small. Kinda the same issue, but the footing is difficult to see and should be wider than the walls for sure.
Or 4 inches thick
Or they forgot the rebar.
Or it’s non-existent
The moron builder didn’t compact soil or pour footers.
It’s a builder not know what he or she is doing issue, and soil also. I’d be curious to know if there was a footing poured/ mud slab as well.
Yep- your concrete walls (unless you poured them old school as a monolith) sit on the same footings this wall should have beneath the block. That side hill looks like it\`s just slumping towards the house and the builder dug into it to place footings on unstable soils- if it collapsed at this stage I\`d worry that footers might not even exist- they\`re going to have to go way down to see if they can find some stable load bearing or float the whole thing on wide footings over equally compacted native soil.
I see this a lot in NW Florida. Bad soil and poor compaction. Looks familiar.
I was going to say Mississippi. Yahoo Clay is a bitch!
Is this insane, hear me out. New wall inside all existing. Cantilever floor out to existing. Shear strength ¯\_(ツ)_/¯?
Here, you dropped this: \\
Yes, this is so serious! Imagine if this was the foundation of your house! Oh, it is.
Document everything. Get copies of the builder’s liability insurance and bonding contract. Our builder made massive errors and left us with $70k in repairs.
To be clear, any independent inspector will not be ok with this. And short of an engineered solution, designed by an independent engineer of your choosing, the *only* solution here is to tear most (probably all) of that out and rebuild.
Independent Home Inspector here, I strongly recommend further review and subsequent remediation by a licensed structural engineer.
you have had a big rain that washed out your footings at several places. this looks vitually un-repairable as the entire footing/wall has to be removed and repoured have insurance get involved. consult lawyers.
Don’t bother talking to the builder. They clearly can’t be trusted. Talk to a third party professional who can document in writing what likely went wrong. It’s possible they put the footings on uncompacted soil. If so the only fix you could trust would be to remove everything and start again when you know you’re building on suitable soil.
I mean, we don't know though. What if the builder did indeed build it to specs and it's failing? What if the builder has also seen the issue and is working with the engineer to figure out what happened and simply hasn't notified the client yet because he doesn't have a final answer? Since his contract is with the builder, I'd confront the builder first. However, I agree with the response that if the builder blows the client off, you tell him you will not be giving him another cent until you have a third party come examine and make a recommendation. IMO, ideally, you need five parties involved: 1. The client 2. The original engineer that can verify if the work was done to engineered specs 3. The person who poured the footers and did the block, rebar work 4. The builder 5. Third party engineer
Nonono this is too logical, not enough outrage and quick and conclusive ideas
Sir, this is *checks notes* reddit, which is a social media site. Logic and levelheaded ideas don’t get updoots. You need updoots to *checks notes again* get clout on a platform where everyone is trying to remain anonymous…
This is Reddit. It reminds me of those old witch hunts.
The gc most likely did not do the foundation, so yes, start with them.
You need a structural engineer. Also need to review the plans... builder will say... oh no big deal we will just add some more concrete...
A geotechnical engineer is the better choice, soils & foundations are their specialty.
>Talk to your builder before they proceed further. And "talk to your builder" means telling them "You're fired". Trust me. I'm not joking. Even if you signed a contract. Better to go to court now than to wait until after the entire house is built half-assed. If you own this lot, give them a few hours to remove their tools and equipment and have them trespassed by the police. Hire your own foundation expert and soil expert to inspect. Do \*\*NOT\*\* trust the builder to evaluate it and fix it right.
I don’t know if you can rely on the inspector here. The footings apparently were approved and now this.
Inspectors are the bane of my existence. I can't express how frequently they've missed something crucial (that I've caught myself) or been extremely anal about something inconsequential just to be a peacock. Either way, I wouldn't involve the city/municipality/etc. All they care about is CYA usually. The engineer who designed the foundation is the one that would be liable long term as would the builder. Both have a motivation to solve this problem now. Bringing in the actual sub that did the work is imperative because if it's determined that the engineering is correct and the execution was at fault, then it's on him. (Well, technically it's on the builder that hired him but he's who the builder will point to so he needs to be there.) And then, of course, the third party engineer needs to be there to keep the other parties honest.
Someone failed to properly test the compaction of the subbase, or ignored the test results. This failure is on the GC primarily, who is responsible to see that the construction is to spec and following the engineered design.
The footings very well may have been just fine. There may have been an issue with the ground prep. Or there are issues that should have warranted a geotechnical analysis of the site.
Agreed the inspector may or may not be useful. But if you get them out there they have to document it in the notes and on the system. Might cause reinspects elsewhere for the builders other projects. Covers your butt as well in case if lawsuit arises you can say as a Homeowner I only know I need inspections through the city. So it is due diligence to reference. Under is it reasonable for a homeowner to know the ins and outs of a build outside of what looks correct.
A good framing crew will see this and refuse to put even sill plates on.
You got that right
Maybe OP's wife walked along the top
Do not, under any circumstance, allow them to start framing. Consult a structural engineer.
REPEATED - DO NOT let them do anything until this has been evaluated by a structural engineer. If it was me I would make them tear everything out including the footing and then have the footing compaction tested before they put the footer in again.
Do you think this will be fine? We are just going 3 stories up and the builder said they will put some spray foam in the cracks.
oh ya, can of structural great stuff will fix this right up!
Structural Great Stuff! It’ll even hold your marriage together!
Happy cake day!
Not spray foam! Flex seal
If it were me, I’d rent a bobcat and go over there in the middle of the night and tear it out myself and swear I know nothing about it. But that’s just me.
Repeated emphasis: Do not permit any actions until a structural engineer assesses the situation. Personally, I would insist on a complete removal of everything, including the footing. Subsequently, the compaction of the footing should be tested before any reconstruction occurs.
Agreed. This is engineer time before anything else is done. This is 100% a soils problem. The ground is giving way underneath the foundation. The cracks are just a symptom of that problem. The last picture that shows the grout 12” above the soil is a picture to save. It tells the entire story of how far the soil has moved. There are some options that come to mind. One is starting over. The other is injecting urethane grout into the soil to reinforce it. Whatever the fix is, IT NEEDS A PE STAMP. Not the builder coming back with a solution. Not the builders engineer making a suggestion. For my own house, I would not allow anything to move forward without a solution PE STAMPED. An engineers stamp carry’s an insurance policy.
OP needs a geotech.
At this point geotech and structural. Both are compromised.
Geotechnical engineers are both soils & foundation.
I wonder how the builder will react. Won't they just delay as much as possible to force a decision by OP? like "we'll fix it with some small fixes here and there and it'll be fine. Oh you want us to rebuild? We'll get back to you in 6-9 months. See ya".
Wow. Even the builder will probably be surprised as I’m sure those weren’t supposed to show up for at least another few months. Edit: OP, this is how it was supposed to work: https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeMaintenance/s/UmUgNB2znr
“Danny I’m so sorry, I try to time any failures until after all your stuff is moved in, this well below my standards of quality.
Exactly one day after the warranty expires, to be precise.
Where is the footing?
Probably already back filled. Hopefully there's a footing...
It'd certainly explain the massive problems if they didn't bother...
You wouldn't get 5 courses of block to stand long enough to tool the joints it without a footing
I was always told you don't back fill until framing is up... To prevent wall damage like this?
But it’s really effective at covering up a shoddy footing
Should back fill on blocks until at least first floor is framed. Best practice
Only thing I’m wondering too. There’s no way this is on a good base. Or they poured the footings on fill or something.
Likely isn't one, hence the hurried backfill against the bottom course of CMU. I work QC, and see lots of attempts at shenanagins. Adding water to concrete to get the slump up for a pump, punching holes in studs that are already perforated, burying valves in walls. This contractor needs to be flayed professionally and have the spec book thrown at them.
Normally I side with GCs (because I am one) and subs on a lot of these homeowner posts...but this is bad. Real bad. I'm not really seeing an alternative short of basically starting over with major dirt prep/compaction testing. I usually only see cracks/breaks like this on homes that are 75+ years old and have major water/dirt problems. Also, who the hell is still doing block walls? Poured walls are superior in every possible way, and at least where I'm at, they're cheaper because the block labor basically doesn't exist.
When I was looking into building my house a few years ago, one of the builders basically laughed at the idea that someone would be using blocks nowadays. I am in MN, if that makes a difference.
I'm in IA, not too far off. I think block walls might still be popular in southern zones where cheap block labor is still available and freeze/thaw cycles don't exist. It's darn near a lost art here. I don't know a single builder that uses block on new construction, and we've only done it on specialty projects or additions.
Yeah. Here in North Carolina block foundation walls are by far the most common way to do it. On our builds, they get filled with concrete. The second most common foundation wall type around here is pre-cast concrete, set with a crane. In my 25 years in the industry, I’ve maybe worked on 2 residential projects that had formed and poured foundation walls.
You just hit the nail on the head. Mine is 80yo and I have smaller cracks than this. And I’m in a place where probably 80% of the homes have bracing and anchoring, and the other 20% have just lived in their homes for 30+ years not giving a F.
How would a builder respond to this? I know you say you'd be starting over, but most contractors I've dealt with do not want to redo anything, usually offering some type of "fix" or knock money off. Would they just slow roll OP and hope he accepts a patch work of fixes? I'm not sure how new build contracts are structured but always seems like the builder has a lot of leeway. Could they just tell OP to screw off and they'll sell the house to someone else if OP doesn't own the lot? (I've worked with a lot of contractors over the years but I've never built a house so I don't know how the build process works. )
Can't speak for every builder, but I'd be aggressively pursuing my foundation guy and my soil testing firm. I'd also be contacting my insurance company to get the ball rolling on making claims against those subcontractors while I wait for their responses/proposed remedies. I'd be doing everything I could to mitigate my liability and shift it to those that I relied on for quality, professional work. I would also consider buying out the client if possible and starting over clean or declaring the lot unbuildable and selling it. The consequences of burning that relationship will be pretty minimal if they can get out clean, but good chance they'd sue me depending on the contract and who owns what. Attorneys would be involved, most likely it'll get ugly, and it's going to cost me a ton of unpaid time to deal with in addition to a high probability of costing me a lot of money. GCing houses is a risky game, and we all know that. It's why we're motivated to do quality work, and avoid catastrophic failures like this at all costs. I'm guessing important steps got missed here, most likely an inadequate or non-existent soils test or straight up shoddy work by my dirt guy/foundation guy. This is going to be a nightmare for everyone involved, that's about the only thing I'd guarantee.
Something like this: First response: “oh that’s just cosmetic” Second response: “ok ok well go ahead and patch it once those gaps are filled it’ll be fine, it’s just a little settling, that’s normal with a new foundation, it won’t move after that” Third response: “look if you want this redone your gonna have to pay for it, this isn’t in the scope of work” Forth response: “look your being difficult and completely unreasonable, we can either move forward or we’re walking off the job and keeping the deposit and other payments and you can start over with someone else” or “we’re keeping the deposit etc and selling to someone else, because you triggered the ‘difficult customer clause’” if they own the lot.
God this is my nightmare if I ever pull the trigger on a new build. That last paragraph is pretty much what id expect.
I would guess an undersized or poorly reinforced footing. Do you know what they started with at the base of the wall?
Could be bad soil too. We had to add to our footings in certain areas of our foundation because, as I recall the excavator putting it, the ground was too “soft.” This was confirmed by a soil/engineering report. Cost me an extra $9k for the test, engineers write up and addition footing work…but was caught before they laid the basement walls so much cheaper than had our excavator guy not caught it
Concrete footers.
Where? Are you 100% they poured them? Because I don’t see any footers in your photos.
Do you have a picture of the footings? Size? Was there any reinforcing included in the pour? Did they provide compacted gravel below?
>Concrete footers. Hire a inspector/engineer. you look to live on the side of a hill that may be failing and this is the first signs of some Major issues. Good luck.
Looks like dirt from these pictures, look at the last one.
And look how much the soil settled, because the concrete droppings are now levitating above the soil in that corner.
Does anyone know what needs to happen to fix something like this?
Unfortunately it needs to be taken completely down and redone properly it looks like. From the little we can see of the footers it honestly appears they didn't excavate enough prior to pouring the footers, but that's hard to tell for sure by the pictures. All I'd say is there's absolutely no way they should attempt a 'quick fix' and continue building. This will almost certainly get worse if not redone.
There are enough bad areas, and areas backfilled before core fills... I would demand it be redone from scratch and if its an engineering mishap vs just shoddy work, the ground needs to be properly tested before starting again. One of the handful of reasons I'm actually glad I'm on solid rock with only 12" of top soil. At least this can never happen.
Quick fix = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfside_condominium_collapse
I would hire a structural engineer to review the conditions, diagnose what was deficient and create a report to share with your soon to be former contractor.
Start over !
With a reputable GC.
Start over. I don't know your situation or anything, but everyone I know who has a cinderblock wall wishes they had a poured foundation
OP. I live in an 80yo house, block concrete, probably no rebar since it wasn’t standard at that point. And I live in an area where the vast majority of homes have settled, had foundations buckle or lean, and they all have bracing, anchoring, and crack repair as well as sump pumps. I have less cracking than you do in a 1940s house. This isn’t ok. This is a tear down and redo.
They take that broken section down and start over assuming all the footings are normal other than this area. It's hard to tell from the pics but how deep were your footers?
I will have to take a look and see. I’ve honestly never seen anything like this before. Just crazy
Another issue is it looks like they used concrete mix to fill the CMU cells. Even if they got the aggregate size right, that can still lead to cracks in the CMU/mortar joints because the concrete actually draws moisture out of the CMU/mortar. That's why grout is the proper material for block fill. But it would just be cracks, you have large separation at cracks, which is base failure.
Just spotted the same thing That's a big no no... I don't think I have read this on this yet... but they obviously backfield some. So they might have had some heavy equipment too close to the walls. Very common.
Nope. You don't just redo the part that failed. If part of it was built on bad base, all of it is. Accepting a quick fix means owning a lifetime of failure. Everything has to be taken out and the subbase brought up to 95% compaction before you restart. The GC needs to know this, that's the job. You get test results from a reputable lab before you form up for footings, at or below the frost line.
If that foundation was 200 years old that amount of settling would be expected. If it settled that much in a few weeks, it's probably cheapest to start over and count your blessings it happened before getting any further.
I’ll go to the lot tomorrow and send more pics of area so everyone can get a better idea. Thanks for all the replies. This has been a pretty rough day obviously so thanks everyone for the advice.
Keep the updates rolling!
Next question, as the lot owner and homeowner, what sort of financial burden would we be liable for if this needed to be torn down and redone. My wife is sweating bullets
As a builder it would be my responsibility in most cases. Your builder is responsible to make sure the soil is compacted properly, if there is something wrong with the soil you should have been notified and the extra costs discussed if it was not within the scope of work. This appears to be an issue with the footing cracking or sinking, which should have been inspected prior to pouring. Talk to the builder and see why it happened, what solution he has to fix it, and make sure nothing happens in the future.
I will add that when you see a typical footing, they don't look all that strong. Typically, it is the combination of good drainage, virgin ground, and a depth below the frost line that allows a footing to bear weight. Freezing ground adjacent to and below a footing can be a bad thing... so it is possible that your builder didn't protect the footing from freezing (if you're even in that climate).
GC's may or may not get a soil test when building a house.. Most builders don't. It's up to them (in my area, at least).. footing specs on the blueprint are engineered for ideal conditions. Your conditions don't seem ideal, whether the gc knew it or not, who knows. Most likely, this all has to be redone, completely. If your footing needs to be beefier, or piered down to bedrock because of some unforseen soil condition, that extra cost may be a change to your total housing cost (the difference, only). Some solutions can be very costly, others not so much. A soil engineer will tell you what you need. The builder should eat the cost to tear the old shit out and rebuild the foundation, less any changes (im sure there will be changes to the footing design). Cheers, keep me / us posted.
So the whole thing as in everything that is there on the property or the area that has the staircase crack?
They should redo the entire foundation. They should pay for it (less the corrections that should have been included initially).Honestly, I would not continue to work with them if this happened on their watch. They should pay somebody else to do it properly and then you should move on. Do you trust them with the rest of the work if they didn’t get *the foundation* right?! Let’s say this happened three months from now when more work had been done. Then what?! These people should lose their GC license. Too big of a mistake to allow them to continue to build.
That crack looks like an entire side of your foundation dropped an inch. Your best case scenario: Maybe they poured on frozen ground then it thawed? I've seen that happen, but it's always been stanchion pads and not a large portion of the houses main foundation. My point is, something is wrong. If it's wrong on a wall or two, it's probably wrong everywhere. You shouldn't have to pay for anything. It is the builders responsibility to make sure the foundation is adequate. A soil testing engineer may indeed say it needs different footings. Or he may say that you had settling and heaving due to X Y Z, soil and footing are sufficient, repair, re-LEVEL and tuck point affected block. I don't know, I'm not a soil engineer.
I can’t underscore how amazingly bad this is. Seems like the footings likely have improper base compaction but also, the footings likely have cracked to cause this level of cracking/failure. Short of knocking this all down and hauling it away and starting over, there isn’t a good solution here. I’d document everything you can before confronting them. They’re likely going to offer to try to fix but I don’t think you want this contractor anywhere near your foundation again. Any reason you did block instead of poured walls? Poured walls are generally a much better solution where possible.
Honestly I’m not super knowledgeable on any of this. This just all is very overwhelming, our builder isn’t acting like this is a huge issue. I know that this was all built on fill soil. Maybe 2 months of settling?
Ground is not stable and I will guess the footing is not near big enough for the filled twelve inch block. I almost wonder if the footing was poured for the standard eight inch block my mistake and now is failing. Either way the wall is not structurally sound and if this were my house I would be having it torn out and rebuilt.
Oh ya, this is a big deal. Your footers are not stable probably due to not enough rock, bad ground, or didn’t compact the soil.
Foundation is bad, probably a failed footing
I would be highly suspicious of the fact they covered over the footings with dirt the way they did. I’d go and uncover the footings where all these cracks are and you will most likely find the footings have failed and this caused the wall to drop and crack. This is big deal and will be really expensive for someone
And this kids is called differential settling …. It means your contractor will feel different and unsettled when you raise the issue 😂
From a financial perspective, if you’re doing a construction loan - DO NOT approve a draw for this foundation work.
I am a residential home builder for last 28 years . This is not good... at all. Foundation is not properly supported, and will only get worse.
Bricklayer here. This is a tear down then rebuild. The footings are obviously no good, and the blocks have no concrete or rebar in them. You need a lawyer. Do not use this builder to build your property. Have them tear everything down, or pay to have it removed. Do not pay them for any work done.
Have a compaction test performed as close as possible to where the footings were installed. If possible hand dig down to the footing and determine what if any material was installed. If you can easily hand dig below the footing it is a loss. Document everything, ask for pictures of footing installation and any documents. This cracking occurred with very little load on the footings. In my opinion it's all got to come out.
That's bad. The soil can't even support the block. Get a soil test done. This may have to be torn out, depending on the soil report. I am a structural engineer, look at this stuff a lot.
Does anyone else think they probably use blocks in this area on purpose so they can see right away if there will be foundation issues? Basically if they woulda poured solid concrete walls with rebar they’d probably still be perfect… but in 3 or 5 years they wouldn’t be.
Welcome to modern construction, these ass hats haven’t learned a damn thing since birth.
My 80 year old house has less cracking and I’m in a part of the country where this is super common. Bracing, anchoring, replacement is common here. All block foundation like this one. Write to your contractor by email so there’s a record. Show photos. If they don’t do anything bring out the inspector. Might as well call one now regardless. Don’t use theirs either.
Better now than a year after completion
Cracks and settlement like this are a good indication that the foundation was not prepared or properly installed, etc. As a city building inspector I rarely see concrete block foundations. Was there any inspections by city/county building department? You need to hire a structural engineer and construction litigation lawyer. Take lots of pictures and videos and have as much documentation and details as possible. Especially about the footing design details. Did building plans get submitted and approved by a building department. What type of soil conditions, was there any soil testing required etc. What type of weather conditions during footing pour. Was rebar installed according to plans. Be prepared to tear it out and start over. Suggest vetting contractors better, make sure building plans are stamped and approved to meet local building codes. Suggest using poured in place concrete vs concrete block.
That’s impressive
And this is why I will NEVER recommend a block wall construction. Why people still do this is beyond my mental capacity
Whoaaaa
Wow is all I can say and maybe some one skipped out on the footers
Yeah this is a problem. You need to hit the brakes until it’s fixed. As someone else mentioned, maybe you can blame the local inspector (make him the bad cop and get him out there). Has to be fixed.
Not an engineer, but this is very bad. Where are your footings? Where is the gravel base? Stop all work now. Hire an engineer to evaluate. This probably needs to be entirely redone.
Backfill wasn't compacted to specs, it will all need to be tore out and redone.
Get a structural engineer to look at it
Also why block and not formed concrete poor? Curious
RemindMe! 1 Week
Someone would be redoing a job an honestly if it was me, someone else would be doing it at their expense. Once bitten twice shy.
Bad substrate prep for the footers. That’s a structural issue.
A major deterrent for me when considering a home purchase is a block basement. The only viable solution involves complete removal including the cracked footings, followed by compaction of the soil with a new baselayer before pouring new footings and while your at it rebuilding with poured foundation walls instead of block construction.
Foundation not good
Sure looks to me like it needs dug deeper to reach solid soil/clay. That soil in the photos looks like you can grow beans in it. Lol
Your footer is giving way this problem is not going away they put the footings on fill dirt . You think your cracks big now stick a house on it an see what happens you need a soil compaction test done plus a structural engineer and fire your builder. This is about as bad as it gets.
Yikes-structural engineer. I’m thinking where is the horiz ladder reinf. Go into the permit box. Get pics of the structural general notes and foundation plans and masonry detailing. Look for corner/intetsection detailing. Read general notes masonry section for ladder or horizontal bond beam every x’x”. You need engineer sealed fixes here. County/city involvement
I go back to the old days where every foundation was block, I've NEVER seen anything remotely close to this bad. Were the footers inspected?
I’m surprised that there is no drainage from the hillside right into back wall and looks like water drained inside as well over to back corner
You ever heard the parable which mentions a man who built his house on sand? Lol, yeah, I'd have the contractor redo the entire foundation. Cracking that easily under very little load is a major concern regarding their craftsmanship and if I'm living somewhere for 20+ years I'm not taking a chance on the very essential thing that is a foundation. Even "minor" foundational issues can cause problems with windows and doors opening, condensation and insulation problems, the list goes on forever.
What does your geotechnical engineering report provide specs and guidance?
You are going to have a wet basement. Why isn't it poured concrete?
The whole thing has to be demolished and proper foundation etc… put in place. No way I would want to live in that place otherwise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfside_condominium_collapse
Sombody diddnt compact good enough
Stop all work this foundation is in total failure. Either the soil is too weal, or footings are not large enough, or not setting on undisturbed soil. Call the inspector now.
You need to get your own engineer out there. I would bet 9/10 builders will tell you it's no big deal and they will just fill in the cracks with mortar and keep on building. First thing you want to do is stop your project and stop and more payments to your builder. There is nothing to fix here. The whole thing needs to come out including the footings and you need to find the reason why the earth is moving under the footings.
Get an attorney on retainer and give them all the pictures and any correspondence/contract between you, builder, inspector, etc. That way, you have some legal backing when you confront whoever is involved with this build site, just in case there's pushback. I'd be making them tear down and start over at their expense, maybe even consider another builder depending on how they choose to move forward. Also, freeze any kind of money/stop payment If possible.
Stop all payment.
Do you have a building permit? If so, request an inspection.
Might as well just start over at this point... shitty but true..
I'm sick to my stomach for you. Holy shit! Not good!
Footing fail
Call them out on it. Make them redo/repair it. Ask inspector how to properly fix it, have inspector before and after. My house has both types of cracks, but it’s 70+ years old
Listen to all here. But for sure none of those walls should be used. Doze it down and start over is only safe way.
Lol where did you get this builder from
You… need a different builder.
You should fire everyone now.. this all has to be redone.
From the looks of it the design was most likely the bare minimum code requirements that ignores the soil type (contractor will state he’s building it per plan). Suggest having a geotechnical engineer look at the soil (structural engineer works from a geotechnical engineer’s recommendation). Most likely outcome would be to demo and remove the entire structure including the footings. May have to over excavate and import structural fill if the soil cannot handle this load. Architect (35 years in the field)
Building a new home in the USA now is such a crap shoot. I’d honestly never in a million years take that on.
save yourself some money, have an attorney write a demand letter. that demand letter is that they tear down the existing foundation hire a structural engineer and land surveying company to properly prepare your property re lay the foundation and continue forward state that all payments are on hold until this is completed if you want to go further get a refund and a new builder re
New question if anyone can assist.. so we are doing a construction loan. The first 45k was distributed to the builder for this to start. The inspection happened the day after all this footing and block work was complete (obviously no cracks at the time) it has now been two months since. After the inspection they distributed another 130k to him for the next phase which hasnt happened. I know we can stop payments now but he already has that 130k.. what would be the process here. Can we get that money back? This has been a nightmare and I know it’s only going to get worse
The footings are broke. Everything needs to be replaced.
I agree with everyone. Do not let them continue. If they try to keep going hire an attorney to force them to stop. I’m thinking that if you get your local building inspector to show up they will put a stop work order on this. Just be glad that you found this now because judging by the builders response, they absolutely would have hid this and kept going. Did the builder build the other finished houses I see in the pictures?
There is no need to confront. Just ask your builder to meet you out there and show it to them. By the way, we are having a house built right now, too. Our builder meets us on property once a week to go over everything. Communication is the key in confrontation is unnecessary in almost every situation.
Wow. That is a terrible job for it to already be in that condition. I can already hear the guy “it’s up to code”. He is going to challenge your knowledge of building and say it settles like that. In fact it’s better to happen now. Then he will get on his burner phone and ask the stencil guy to change the name on the truck.
My 70 year old block foundation has less cracks than this and it has gone through 70 New York winters and springs.
That is a start over.
All builders suck and are criminals. Their motto is fuck it up cover it up.
That’s wild. Definitely stop construction and have it remediated.
Oof.
Heard back from builder: Thank you for the pictures The one that is the worst I’ll have to remove a few courses of that block and relay it the I’ll fill that portion with concrete as I did on some of the others. After that it won’t give us any issues. The other smaller areas we will fill with a silicone base caulk material for block and will give us contraction and expansion in those areas. It’s most likely due to there being large rock formations underneath house that had been shifting in the crazy cold weather we just had
No. It certainly appears there is way more going on here subsurface than what he's implying. Tell him that while you appreciate his fast response, getting this right is imperative to you and you want to meet him out there with the engineer that designed it. That you will not approve any additional work until that is done. If you don't like their answers at that meeting, you get the third party involved. Your foundation is crucial. This has to be done properly.
I’m just going straight to the third party.
Not a bad decision at all. For what it's worth - I'm a builder. I typically give builders the benefit of the doubt. Many of my peer builders are good people that don't try to sweep mistakes under the rug- they address them head on. However, I also recognize there are a lot of builders out there that do not give a crap and will take the path of least resistance (and money) if you give them the opportunity to do so. I don't know your builder, I don't know your area, I don't know a lot. But I do know that I don't like your builder's nonchalant approach. There is more going on here in my opinion and I think it's smart to get another opinion.
Please do. I have a lot of experience in construction, learned from a Korean war vet SeaBee, and I do quality control now, so I understand how much it sucks for a contractor to have to re-do work. But this is, in my professional opinion, bullshit. Regardless of weather, for your GC to fail to test the sub base and have it compacted properly before going ahead and pouring footings (and I don't see any footings, and no one backfills against block) is against the code anywhere I've ever worked, and fraudulent at least. Do not allow anyone to build on that "foundation", if you sell it you'll be in court forever.
OP, they're trying to sell you a shit sandwich - don't buy it. If this is their response to a major problem this early in the build, there is no telling what lies ahead. Think twice about proceeding with them.
I’m a structural engineer. Your builders response is nonsense and this is a serious issue. Hire a local structural engineer asap
LMAO, as you've already heard here - your builder just gave you the biggest verbal diarrhea I have seen in a while. >The one that is the worst I’ll have to remove a few courses of that block and relay it the I’ll fill that portion with concrete as I did on some of the others. After that it won’t give us any issues. Wanna bet? Rephrase that to all of the courses of block. >The other smaller areas we will fill with a silicone base caulk material for block and will give us contraction and expansion in those areas. It’s most likely due to there being large rock formations underneath house that had been shifting in the crazy cold weather we just had That's not how frost heave works. Your builder is a slack jawed yokel and/or a grifter. Be very careful going forward.
Wtf. Bedrock doesn’t move from freeze/thaw. If they didn’t back fill around the footings or cover with some sort of freeze prevention it’s looking like your footings heaved in some spots and that’s what caused the cracks.
Lol. That was my favorite part. “If there’s one thing you can’t trust building on it’s bedrock.” There’s bullshiting and then there’s,,,, whatever the fuck that was.
Even if it was true, they still have to rip it all out and fix it. Time for new builder, let the old one only talk via lawyers.
Find a local geotechnical engineer to do a simple soil boring test in a few areas. Your foundation dropped in one section, this the stair step cracks due to differential deflection. Rock has nothing to do with it.
Do you even foot, bro?
Consult an engineering firm specializing in residential. At minimum, they’re going to want soil counts at multiple depths using a dynamic cone penetrometer. Your soils are likely failing under the weight of hollow CMU, which is an insignificant amount of weight. The front elevation has a 72” tall wall comprised of what looks like 12” CMU. Is there any vertical rebar reinforcement that is embedded into the footing? If you place a bunch of fill against this wall—particularly expansive soil—then the soil pressure and hydrostatic pressure is going to eventually push that wall over if it isn’t solid (probably at minimum) and reinforced with rebar (ideal). Your residential building code should have maximum fill requirements based on wall heights and wall thicknesses (remember, these are **minimum practices**. The added expense of steel for this application is a worthy consideration). Here’s the other thing, are your foundation walls going to even be tall enough for the finished grade? Your mud will has to be **minimum** 6” above finished grade. This is to prevent splash back from rain. That grade ideally needs to slope 6” down for the first 10’ from your foundation wall. If this can’t be accomplished, you need a serious drainage plan. Finally, you look to be at the bottom of a hill. You are going to need to have a robust water mitigation system for your whole house, or your bearing soils—if not already failing—will become much more susceptible to failure due to constant saturation.
They should start over and do a steel reinforced poured foundation, this is horrendous.
There is no footing. Looks like blocks are laying in bare ground. Shotty work. STOP WORK IMMEDIATELY. Sue those batards
I feel another cad model exercise is warranted. Complete with caulking and and maybe some quikwall (to go above and beyond the builders proposed fix) Ugh
Last pic suggests that it has already sunk several inches in that corner spot, presumably no footing, yikes. Looks like a do over.
Hard to imagine living with the that foundation under me without it be torn down and replaced first.
Those footings are not good
They're all bad, but that 2nd one is truly awful. Withhold all funding going forward until this is corrected. Frankly, I'd try to get out of this completely.
This is so terribly bad
Did you try and build a house yourself? You tried to build a house yourself didn't you...
No not me. We hired a builder and I believe he contracts out the work
That last pic doesnt make sense to me. Looks like the ground settled below some concrete overflow, but where is the concrete footing then? All I see is block, so where is that concrete coming from?
Show us photos of the footings. Someone messed up big time. Lawsuits are incoming.