Concrete horizontal crack

Foundation walls made from concrete blocks or other masonry units are very good at handling compressive strength, which is the weight of a house above pushing down on the wall. Where masonry walls struggle is with lateral loads.

Lateral force runs parallel to the ground and perpendicular to the direction of gravitational pull. In other words, the pressure pushing inward on your basement wall is lateral force. Exert enough lateral force on a foundation wall and the wall will crack, often at the masonry line. Because foundation walls are load bearing, if the walls crack and lose structural integrity, the entire building can be compromised and in danger of collapse. To protect your home and family, it is vital that you call the professionals at My Foundation Repairs immediately to inspect your home foundation cracks.

We rarely see cast in place concrete foundation walls which have developed a horizontal crack because of lateral or inward soil pressure. These rare instances are typically the result of excessive lateral soil pressure caused by super saturated soils or very deep basements with tall foundation walls. The more likely cause of horizontal crack development in concrete foundation walls is corrosion of embedded reinforcing steel.

As the steel corrodes it expands which causes the concrete to split apart and spall off on the surface. In very rare instances have we seen vertical crack development caused by corrosion of embedded reinforcing steel as vertical reinforcing steel is rarely used in concrete foundation walls.

The only situations which would require the use of vertical reinforcing steel would be in relatively tall foundation walls. Vertical cracks in concrete foundation walls are generally the result of concrete shrinkage which is normal and expected. Corrosion of reinforcing steel is typically the result of either the steel not having enough concrete cover to protect it or by excessive chlorides being present in the concrete mix at the time it was placed.

Common sources of chloride in concrete used for residential foundations include admixtures which are used to accelerate curing at the time the concrete is placed and contaminated aggregates. Chlorides may also be added to the concrete in an attempt to lower the freezing point, although this not very effective as it may lower the freezing point by only a couple of degrees.

The level of chloride required to start the corrosion process of embedded reinforcing steel is extremely low at approximately. There are two problems associated with horizontal crack development.

Seaquist, McGraw Hill, ISBN obsolete, incomplete, missing most diagnosis steps, but very good reading; out of print but used copies are available at Amazon. Ed Seaquist was among the first speakers invited to a series of educational conferences organized by D Friedman for ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors, where the topic of inspecting the in-service condition of building structures was first addressed.

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Ransom, E. Williams, Kindle book, Amazon. Quoting: A professional reference designed to assist surveyors, engineers, architects and contractors in diagnosing existing problems and avoiding them in new buildings. Fully revised and updated, this edition, in new clearer format, covers developments in building defects, and problems such as sick building syndrome.

Well liked for its mixture of theory and practice the new edition will complement Hinks and Cook's student textbook on defects at the practitioner level. Cohen, P. This article in turn cites the Fine Homebuilding article noted below.

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