House is about a year old, and I recall during closing the builder stressing that the warranty would not apply to small cracks in drywall due to settling and such.

However, in the past week we have found several large cracks in our drywall. There is a long crack in the floor that travels the width of our house and has broken several tiles in half. I also have noticed there are two cracks that can be seen on the edge of the foundation of the house that line up with both the cracked drywall and broken tile areas.

Is this normal, or a bit excessive? I can easily repair all of the damage, so thats not of much concern, just worried this might be a sign of a bigger issue.





edit, adding link to images in dropbox if above host does not work.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6k1fr0s3lkjv7e4/AAB-oAkSTraLo5cwIcfWZnBba?dl=0

Sheetrock is cracking at the weakest point.

The tile on the other hand...im not sure.

I have a similar drywall crack in my house, from what I believe was a poorly supported 15 year old deck. I had a crack mirrored on another wall. When my dad saw mine (former home inspector), he though it looked like a loading issue type crack if I remember correctly. Do you have the same type of crack on a wall nearby? Anything that would be pulling or loading unevenly on that wall?

Not an expert, but like I said, I have two cracks that are identically patterned.

A decent builder should give you a one time call back to correct settling cracks in Sheetrock.

We had multiple tiles crack when we built our first house. Some because of bad workmanship and some from settling.

Need more Info to have an opinion. Can look at it if you like and you are in Dallas area.

Man, crack running through the tile seems crazy. I would have thought the tile would loosen up & crack at the grout lines instead of cracking through the tile itself, but I'm not a builder.

Those cracks are not unusual for a post tension slab foundation on clay soil. Just make sure to submit a warranty request before your one year mark as it may not be covered in the second year.

Most builders will take care of sheetrock settlement cracks that require a drywall guy to repair. It's the common hairline cracks at inside corners that only require some caulk and paint that builders will consider a homeowner maintenance item.

New World Ag said:

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Those cracks are not unusual for a post tension slab foundation on clay soil. Just make sure to submit a warranty request before your one year mark as it may not be covered in the second year.

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Those cracks ARE unusual for a slab with grade beams. OP said "I also have noticed there are two cracks that can be seen on the edge of the foundation of the house that line up with both the cracked drywall and broken tile areas." Agree on the post-tension though. Really we need more info to determine.

CJS4715 said:

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Man, crack running through the tile seems crazy. I would have thought the tile would loosen up & crack at the grout lines instead of cracking through the tile itself, but I'm not a builder.

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It depends on the overall adhesion of the tile. In this case it was good since it's effectively stuck to the concrete. Maybe the tile setter should've had an expansion joint of some kind if it's a large area. Not enough details to say one way or another but to me it seems... odd.

How are the doors in the house ? Any closing on their own or rubbing on door jambs?

Any drywall crack running at angles?

As far as tile I've removed too many tile in my days to tell you when you see a tile crack like that there are usually 2 things going on. 1 there will usually be a crack in the slab under the broken tiles transferring through. 2, this is often caused by using cheap non polymer modified thinset. If you replace those tiles make sure you use a quality polymer modified thinset on the new ones.

I had a crack like that run through the middle of my house, but that was....

a) 10 years after the build
b) one year after we did a stone patio in back yard which was attached to existing foundation
c) after the ridiculously hot summers an drought (austin)

Lots of stuff going on and at the surface/foundation. Structural engineer said it was not a huge concern.

For the crack in the foundation....when did it show up? If you inspected the house during construction, was that crack formed at an early age (meaning within a few days /weeks of pouring foundation) or after a few months? Early age cracking is a function of how concrete cures and not soil movement. Older age cracking is a function of expansive soil movement or bad foundation design / installation. Cracks on the corners of slabs are due to poor consolidation of concrete when pouring.

Im guessing this is a post tension slab?

Minor sheetrock cracks are typically more a function of bad sheetrock workmanship and / or taping but are common, especially along tapelines, or corners. However, if the sheetrock cracks in the middle of the panel is a significant way, that is more likely a foundation issue.

I'll try to cover all of the additional questions. I'm not an engineer so forgive my ignorance on some of the terms.

The house is now slightly more than a year old and there have been no major changes in or near the house (no new patios or anything for myself or neighbors. There is nothing near the affected area aside from a narrow passageway.

Now that someone has mentioned the doors, my master bedroom door (located on the second floor directly above the effected area) will no longer close as it has shifted enough to prevent it from closing.

The slab was inspected during the build and had no issues found. It is a post tensioned slab or engineered slab I think is the term they used. At the time the house was being built I only remember seeing a few surface cracks but nothing large like this. I don't recall seeing anything that traveled the side of the foundation like we have currently.

I will try to take some more photos and maybe piece together some crude diagrams of what is going on and where the cracks are but both of these items will be in a few weeks as I am taking a much needed vacation.

Appreciate all the help and will be getting an structural engineer to come out and give it a look when we get back.

Not sure where you are located but how wet has the winter been there ?

And do you have guttering around the perimeter of the house ?

With poor or non existent guttering , after a dry summer coupled with decent rain, can cause movement on the exterior foundation. Depending on the roof line, pitch and how the valleys are structured it doesn't take much for a decent amount of water to get channeled into inside corners of foundations.

Good idea to get a structural engineer to look at it, if your not satisfied, you may have a geotechnical (soils) engineer as well.

What town do you love in?

From what you provided, especially with a door not closing, crack showing up later in the slab life....it sounds like you have a foundation moving due to expansive soils. Not to scare you, but if you already are not taking this seriously, start now. Put the builder on notice in order to stay within warranty, and get a 3rd party expert.

I may be totally wrong about the cause of this since im going off very little information, but Id definitely have the idea of moving in my head. The soils will move again unless you are really good at keeping the moisture content in the soils beneath your house constant. When water content changes in some soils, they will shrink / swell and can lift a house. The amount of that depends on mineralogy and some soils can have incredible swell (ive measured up to 30%). I am more experienced with this on road paving, but it can affect houses as well.

The door not closing would be more of a flag to me. I'd get an engineer to come out.

Let me guess. DFW?

Who's the builder? That's crazy if they don't fix it. Could be over moisture, under moisture, or something else. I work for a structural engineer, and if you're in DFW, I can help you out. All the builders we deal with fix these same exact problems up to 10 years after build.

House is in Houston. First ward near Houston and Crockett. High and dry and far from any flooding issues. The entire house has gutters on the perimeter so I doubt it's a water issue. The cracking is where the stairs are located. The wall crack is at the base of the stairs and the broken tiles are where the top of the stairs meet up with the second floor. The master bedroom is about 3 feet past the top of the stairs.

I have filed a warranty claim and when I get back from vacation I will reach out to a few structural engineers I know. I also will work on getting y'all some additional photos and drawings so that if someone else has similar issues this is well documented. Plus I know you all enjoy solving other people's house issues.

I went ahead and tossed two more photos I had in my phone of the affected area for those who want to take a peek. One is of what is behind the drywall and the other is just the general area where the issues are occurring. The floor cracks are between where the top of stairs are and the kitchen island. The drywall crack is forming right where the stairs meet the exterior wall and the window.

By water issue, I'm talking subsurface ground water mainly, but I don't know the area too well.

I would suggest waiting for a response from the builder before hiring a structural engineer because the builder will have their own structural engineer they will send out and pay for.

Foamcows said:

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I went ahead and tossed two more photos I had in my phone of the affected area for those who want to take a peek. One is of what is behind the drywall and the other is just the general area where the issues are occurring. The floor cracks are between where the top of stairs are and the kitchen island. The drywall crack is forming right where the stairs meet the exterior wall and the window.

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Here's the 2 pics for everyone's viewing here...

those cracks would be an issue for me on a 1 year old house

at a minimum you have some installation issues

I would call DuWest Foundation and speak with Kenny Dutton. He will come out and tell you exactly if you have a problem. If you want the best structural eng. I would call Edwin Robinson his phone number is 713- 664-1264'
I will attach a link to his site. He is he best in the business.

https://profengineering.com/

Call a structural Engineer. You need a PE stamped report. If there are issues found, you will have much more success in addressing this with the builder with a PE stamped report.