Have you ever heard of the old saying “you need to build your home on a rock rather than loose sandy soil?” Well this might not be the case with a building foundation. Smaller cracks aren't going to be as big of a problem as larger ones, but don't forget that smaller foundation cracks can get bigger. If you have small hairline cracks in your building foundation, usually this won't become a problem unless they start to expand and get larger. A good example of a hairline building foundation crack would be to draw a line on a piece of paper with a pen or pencil. A hairline crack isn't going to be any bigger than the width of a regular pencil line.
If the building foundation has structural reinforcing installed within the footings and the building foundation slab itself, these cracks and usually won't get larger. The reinforcement will actually hold these areas together and provide additional strength for the homes foundation.
Now what about larger cracks in your foundation, could these be a problem? Well if the cracks are large then you need to get those fixed a.s.a.p. However if the cracks are a bit smaller and you are worried about them increasing over time a handy trick you can do is take a picture of the crack and then regularly take pictures of these cracks annually to make sure that they're not getting larger.
Foundation cracks are common in home construction and to give you a brief summary, if the foundation cracks are small, you might not have a problem, but if they're big, wider than a quarter of an inch, you could have a problem. Cracks that are wider than a half-inch could mean serious problems. The best bet is to just secure and fix all cracks and our proven A-1 method has never failed. Should you need foundation repair or even need us to evaluate the cracks or leaks in your home contact us today and we’ll be happy to help.