Understanding Foundation Cracks

Your home’s foundation is the key to ensuring your biggest investment stays safe and sound.

Keeping an eye out for foundation cracks is one of the most important things you can do to make sure your home’s foundation is in stable condition. Most of the time, foundation cracks are a sign of a foundation settling, but to be sure, it’s important to understand what certain cracks mean for certain foundation walls. 

Newer homes are often built with foundation walls made from poured concrete and reinforced steel bars, and older homes are typically constructed of 16” x 8” X 8” concrete masonry units (frequently referred to as CMUs). 

To give you a better understanding of when you should be concerned with cracks in your walls, we’ve outlined the most common types of foundation cracks you’ll find in both newer and older homes. Some of these cracks are normal and don’t require attention, but others might warrant further inspection.

Why it’s important to inspect foundation cracks

Because cracks grow so slowly, it’s easy to feel like the problem isn’t getting any worse, and it’s understandable that you’d want to ignore the problem completely. But, even if you can’t see the cracks growing in real time, your home’s foundation is still suffering, and eventually, the foundation will likely fail, which will then leave you with an unfortunate and expensive situation. It will never be cheaper to fix your foundation than it is today.