I am hoping I can get some opinions. A house we are looking at on some rural acreage came back with a finding from a structural engineer we hired. The house is about 2500 square feet and built in 2015. The foundation has a tilt (foundation is moving as a whole) from front to back of 2.7" on a 50' run.

It is hardiplank exterior and wood wall/farmhouse look interior, so you cannot really see any damage besides a 3/16" caulk gap between the wood wall and wood ceiling on the back wall. The engineer said this is due to the house pulling on that back wall because of the tilt towards the front of the house. The spec is apparently 1% for tilt, or 6" on a 50' run, which seems like quite a bit to me. It is still in spec, but the engineer's concern was more about the amount of shifting on a 9 year old house.

Consider it or move on is the question. Thanks in advance!

Location & love of the Plan or house would be the only reason to ask engineer how-to fix it & costs ... then how long the fix will last. This tip of the iceberg forcasts this is not the only fix/$$$ fleas this dog will have; most contractors know that getting the foundation right is important b/c it's the only thing people SUE over; yet the temptations or "bad luck" appear.

If your love of house/location won't let you move on - or better yet - create a tailored Plan for your lifestyle AKA forever house, then know that foundation fixes like this one can range from DIY trenching & watering through concrete slant piers $10-20k with free adjustments ... for TWO years.

A 1% slope is 0.57 deg.

A 2.7" difference over 50 feet is around 1/4 of a degree (0.257 deg).

That is quite a bit

I just did cabinets on one that is 2.5 inches out on 25 ft and it was fun. But this one was poured this way because it was a garage back in 1979


I wouldn't rule it out but I would definitely have some foundation companies look at it and see what the cost would be to fix it.

And it would have to be heavily heavily discounted for me to bite on it and have the work done.


My concern is rural means there was no inspection so you have no idea what the foundation is truly like as far as beam depth, steel etc.

Bigger question is why is it moving that much if the house was built in 2015? That's a lot of movement and there is an underlying issue. I bought one with similar slope, I was doing a total remodel on the house so chalked it up that it was an issue I would fix. Never again.

Yeah, that is what I am wondering too. I got the actual report from the engineer today. It was actually 3.1" in the worst spot over 50'. He is recommending 16 piers with no leveling (just an attempt to stabilize). Not going to move forward. This can be someone else's headache.

Just fyi, as someone pointed out…this math is way off. Not sure if that makes a difference for you or not.

Thanks, yeah, I agree with yall. The slab is actually off 3.1" over 50' which is something like a half a degree. I am pretty sure a marble would roll on that, so too much for me.