is the structural engineer correct??

Question

I recently used a structural engineer to do a visual inspection of one of my single family rentals.  I haven't used this engineer enough to know if his opinions are valid, so I wanted to see if any investors find his opinion questionable.  The property has had about 2" to 2.5" of downward settlement on one side of the house, which has caused drywall cracks and uneven floors.  His opinion is that we don't need to install piers right now, but we should focus on making sure water doesn't flow towards the house from the outside.  Does this sound right?

Billy Smith · Answer

Always fix all water issues first before moving on to doing major repairs of a structural  nature.   Fix gutters, extend  gutters at least 10 ft haul in dirt around foundation if needed the best soil for a foundation is a heavy clay type  , cut back trees if needed .

Richard Schubert · Answer

The reason for the water to be away from the house is water movement from surface water soaking in, such as poor grade or leaking gutters, is it will move the subsoil causing the settling. Almost all foundation issues are because of water movement. Being a slab, your footings are not as deep and more prone to movement . As mentioned, a good foundation repair company can make it good as new. Properly repaired, you should see no value decrease.

Caleb Brown · Answer

Hey Ryan! Engineers are usually sound on what they recommend. Grading is priority and putting braces keeps it from further moving. Pretty common for the area to do work like this

Henry Clark · Answer

Sounds like you have a good structural engineer.

Anyone else reading this post.  If you have cracks in the wall there is foundation settling.  Negotiate and Discount the property.

Check your roof.  I have seen 2 inch gaps in the ridge of a building. Covered over by the tar paper and shingles. There was also extra bracing to keep the roof from moving further apart.

Henry Clark · Answer

Not enough info.  His recommendation is a good temporary solution to see if more settling occurs then take measures.

1.  How old is the house?  What year was it built?  If built recently footings should have been inspected by city.  They failed to compact the footings.  If older home then settling should have been done years ago unless you have a new drainage issue.  See comments below. If this is an old issue.  Check the cracks in the wall and see if there is filler or toothpaste.  If this is a new build ask the contractor to look at.

2.  If this is in KC it should have frost free footings.

3.  See if there are water issues outside.  There should be an 8 to 10 foot down slope grade from the house outward.  To keep water away from foundation.

4.  Has there been landscaping next to the house that flattened next to the house.

5.  Rain downspouts do they lead away from the hose several feet.

6.  Are the gutters clogged and water is spilling out next to house?

Would check all of those before jacking the house.  Or putting in a French tile drain.

I think the above are the type of items your engineer wants you to look at.  If he didn’t inspect.

Chris Seveney · Answer

See if you have any pics prior. The answer is it depends - if there is no more settlement then they are correct you probably do not need piers at this time, if it continues to move then you need to do something. As they mention one of the best solutions is to make sure water does not flow toward the foundation it should flow away from it for many reasons structurally but water is not your friend. So the anwer is: it depends.

Trent Davis · Answer

@Ryan Fox before you have any work done the guys I have do all of my foundation work is great and always right around the cheapest. Falcon Foundation, highly recommend.

Dennis McNeely · Answer

There are several things that could cause settlement @Ryan Fox. If the foundation / footing isn't deep enough, frost could have raised one side of the house and caused cracking. Similarly, if the house sits on expansive clay on one side of the house. the clay could lift that side of the house and caused the cracking.

Conversely, if one side of the house sits on unconsolidated fill or on silt, it would settle or shift over time - once again, causing cracking.

I'd start by getting a soils engineer to look at the soils around the building to determine what's gone on to cause the heaving or settlement. From there, you can determine the best solution to remedy the issue and prevent its recurrence.

In this area, the two soils engineers I've used most often are McDowell and Associates, and Soils and Materials Engineers (SME) - but I don't know if they have branch offices in the area near your problem site.

Best of luck with it!

Ryan Fox · Answer

@Richard Schubert- Yeah, I'm glad I brought the engineer out because 2 foundation contractors looked at it previously.  One quoted $20k to put piers on 3 sides of the home, and another quoted $10k to put piers on one side.  Because of the difference in opinion, I decided to bring out the engineer, and he's actually saying piering isn't necessary at this point.

Next time I'll start with the engineer.

is the structural engineer correct??

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