That's absolutely the right type. Much better than someone who has an interest in selling people foundation work.

Definitely. Structural engineer pays for itself.

Do it...and listen.

We had a structural engineer come out and take a look at our house. He had some concerns, but we didn't listen as well as we should have (plus we didn't have full information, sellers 'hid' some things and didn't disclose some things) and now we're dealing with those issues.

A good structural engineer is worth it. We have seen those who are gifted and creating mountains out of molehills. If you have a 4' level walk around with it and check plumb and level at windows, doors, and corners inside the house.

Also, close interior doors and from the hinge side look at the reveals (the small space between the door and the jamb. Is it fairly consistent all the way around? Does it look like doors have been planed to fit into the opening? Does it look like they recently patched and painted drywall that may have been cracked?

I am in no way discouraging a structural engineer. But it might be worth some preliminary investigation of your own.

Hugh Stearns
Stearns Design Build
979.696.0524

When sailing a ship across the ocean, do you actually jettison the crap?

Nice looking house.

Those foundation cracks are just 'corner popping'. It's typically considered a cosmetic, non structural issue. caused by expansion/contraction between the brick/mortar joint and the foundation. It's prevented by a moisture stop or flashing at the time of construction.

Now that it's already occurred, just keep an eye on it if it gets worse.

The corner pops happened because there was not a bond break between the brick and the concrete. The cracking at the windows looks like the mason cut the brick to fit around the window Lintel rather than placing it in a mortar joint.

The brick is veneer. It is like the skin on the house. You don't want water getting behind it and you don't want small amounts of movement from expansion and contraction to cause it to get worse.

Having said that let me also say that when I bought my house it was 100% brick veneer. It now has no brick on it. That is because I think that brick is a particularly bad choice for veneer in a hot humid climate.

Weird... I agree on the corner pops FWIW but item E.1-4 I haven't seen before. It's almost like something swelled up inside there to crack the brick like that. Or like somebody said, maybe it could be bad brickwork. I'm no mason so I'm not sure.

Maybe bad masonry + thermal expansion and contraction somehow? Dunno the first thing about how you could even go about fixing that.

Where yat? My bff is a structural eng. in Austin.

I could get him to look at pictures, but that's a bit too far to travel for freebies.
Sounds like it would be a good investment to get good reliable information.

Still a good investment if there is a problem.

third coast.. said:

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Concur, but he use good leaf paper

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He doesn't like to write.

03_Aggie said:

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third coast.. said:

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Concur, but he use good leaf paper

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He doesn't like to write.

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He doesn't like to seal.