Q & A with Clint Cooper: Common questions about foundation issues

SM: Why are cracks now appearing in the exterior or interior walls of my home?

CC: We just came off a very wet spring season; the soil under the home absorbs water during the wet part of the year. The soil dries out in the summer months and begins to shrink. Think of it as your house sitting on a wet sponge that becomes a dry sponge. As the soil shrinks, the house settles and shifts with the dropping/shrinking soil.

SM: So then settlement issues are not exclusive to older homes?

CC: This is a common misconception. Unfortunately not. Foundation and settlement issues have everything to do with what the house is sitting on, and little to do with the
house itself.

SM: How do I know if it needs to be fixed?

CC: There is a certain variance that is allowable for house or structure settlement. It would be unlikely that you would fnd any house or structure that was built perfectly square on perfect soil simply because of human error. A trained professional can use a self-leveling laser to determine if any part of the floor inside or the exterior facade (ex: brick,stucco, etc.) has dropped lower than when the house or structure was built.