foundation on house interested in buying (Rule: neighborhood, inspectors, price)

[richardtb]

I am including a picture to show how the foundation looks like. Is this something I should be concerned about, or is this normal? Richard

[txnavychief]

I just saw something similar to this about a month ago and at one point on the front of the house there was a gaping hole between the ground and the foundation. After we got inside, there were cracks along the windows in the front bedroom and places in the closets where the floor had started to sink, pulling the floors away from the bottom of the walls.

There were dead bugs all over the place and random cracks in every room in the house. We proceeded to check out the added-on gameroom, which was one of the main reasons we wanted to look at the house, and the floor had separated from the wall at least a good 6 inches to the point that you could see the back yard through the opening.

After having a look around, there was no reason to continue pursuing purchasing the house. The price on the house was lower than other ones in the same neighborhood (which was a flag to begin with) but trust me when I say it wasn't low enough to reflect the amount of money that would have to be paid to correct the very obvious foundation issue.

Edit: To answer your question, you'll need to get a look inside the place to check for signs of a faulty foundation and get the seller's disclosure to see if there are any foundation problems or work that was done on the foundation.

[richardtb]

Thanks.

The house was spotless in the inside. We still have not received the seller's disclosure.

[testmo]

it could just be they didn't back fill as the ground/home naturally shifts. we had an animal dig under our house and left a big hole. you fill it back up or the home most definitely will shift due to it.

i wouldn't just take a house off my interest list just because of that. any house you buy you should hire a professional engineer to do an inspection whether there are signs or not

[crone]

Where are the footings? Looks like cinderblock laid on the ground. Did they just pile up dirt around the house? It looks weird. If you just love that house, get the owners disclosure and an engineers report.

[jd433]

Hello, I couldn't tell 100% from the picture. It looks like it is erosion or crumbling of the edge of the foundation. If it is a concrete slab foundation you will see exposed Rebar where the erosion is. In that case it is an easy fix. THIS IS CRITICAL: IF YOU SEE A GAP BETWEEN THE FOUNDATION AND THE SOIL AROUND IT YOU MAY HAVE A BIG PROBLEM. The gap is caused by the contraction in the soil that occurred due to the drought we had a couple years ago.

If it is erosion then you will find that if you dig down and expose the entire edge (it is 18" deep) of the foundation the erosion will only be in the area that is exposed and does not follow all the way down to the bottom. It is kind of like a pothole that needs to be filled in.

Of course you would need to explore further to see if there are any other signs of foundation problems.

[predatorprey]

As others would mention, I would not eliminate the house if you do not see obvious signs of major foundation movement.

I would look for huge trees near the house. Rule of thumb, the size of the canopy is the aprox size of the root system.

Is this home elevated by by any chance? Almost looks like cinder blocks....

We are all arm car inspectors looking at a picture at this point and there is no way for us to tell if that is even an issue. Please do your due diligence with a well qualified inspector, and maybe it might be worth the piece of mind to pay for a foundation inspection as well.

[geopainter]

Have ahad my foundation releveled recently, and have a few thoughts on this:

first, the crumbling texture may contribute to further erosion by letting water get into cracks. If you see exposed rebar, you need to cover it up before it rusts and weakens the slab internally.

A gap in certain places around the slab may be from soil contraction, as was mentioned, could be due to an animal, but also could be due to previous foundation repairs... a seller needs to disclose this. Reason i mention is that our house had previously been releveled, and there were areas around the piers where the backfill was not superb.

[Beto]

Have it inspected if you truly would like to purchase the home.

[cheryjohns]

Are those cinder blocks - or is that a patterned stucco?