Last week, I found out about tapered cracks and how important it is to track the length of a crack. This week, I'm shadowing Aaron Moore to find out about foundation wall cracks that aren't tapered. The first home that we saw this morning had a large, diagonal crack approximately 1" wide along the northwestern corner. According to the homeowner, he noticed the crack about a week or so after he moved into the home five years ago. It was pretty small at that time and hadn't appeared to change until this winter. Now, the home is on the market and he's gotten bad showing feedback about the crack. According to the soil report that he showed us, he has hydrocompactible soil, which means that as the soil gets wet, it becomes more dense. The homeowner has noticed that since he removed an old tree, the northwestern corner of the lot seems to be much wetter than it used to be. When Aaron heard this information, he recommended that the northwestern corner of the residence be piered to move the weight of the home off of the hydrocompactible soil and onto stable, load-bearing strata.
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