Nov. 8, 2000

CRACKED FOUNDATIONS BREAK HOME VALUE, PERSONAL FINANCES

COLLEGE STATION - Mike Chornyak's water-saving efforts during this year's drought came with a cost.

He didn't keep a lush lawn. He didn't run up his utility bill. He didn't use water that might be better spent for human needs. And now he's facing a $10,000 bill.

The Chornyak home in College Station has a telltale crack in the brick veneer on one side of the house that can be traced across the foundation to the north side of the brick veneer and up to the wooden facing. His foundation literally cracked under the extreme dryness of this year's drought.

"If I ever want to sell this house, it has to be fixed," Chornyak said. "And that means about $10,000, according to the estimates I've gotten."

Chornyak has lived in Texas for several years but had not heard of the need to maintain concrete foundations on clay soils.

His is not an unusual situation. Many people with homes in the eastern half of Texas don't realize the clay soils are notorious for expanding in wet spells and shrinking in dry times. Most concrete slab foundations have been built to withstand limited movement, but extremes of either can buckle a foundation that is not maintained.

"The key is to maintain an even moisture level in the soil around the house," said Janie Harris, Texas Agricultural Extension Service housing specialist. 

She said people should continue throughout the year to keep constant moisture levels around the foundation but look at other ways to conserve water such as using water conserving low flow toilets and shower heads in the house.

People concerned about foundation damage should look for:

* cracking exterior brick veneer that varies in width from top to bottom, or diagonal cracks. Cracks of uniform width are commonly shrinkage cracks and don't indicate expansive soil activity.

* separation of expansion joints.

* diagonal cracks above or below windows and door openings inside the home.

* visible cracking of foundation slab.

* inability to open or close doors. Doors of rooms, closets or cabinets out of alignment.

* cracking or waving of floor finishes, most often visible in linoleum or ceramic tiles.

* feeling of walking up or down hill as you walk across the room.

Early detection of the beginnings of these signs can signal the homeowner to take immediate action, Harris said. Chornyak noticed most of these signs over a period of about six to nine months, he said, but didn't realize there were steps he could have taken to avoid a serious foundation crack.

"If a slab hasn't separated to the point that you can get a dime or penny in, it's likely a superficial crack and that's OK because the integrity of the slab is not threatened," she said. "Even if a piece of slab has fallen off the corner, that is cosmetic not structural.

"Sometimes the slab has settled but doesn't have a true crack," she said.

She said early signs often can be corrected - and a major crack prevented - if people alter the moisture condition in the area of 3-5 feet from the slab, usually by slowly, over a period of several weeks, irrigating. Suddenly adding too much water to the soil would cause the opposite problem - expansion of the clays which also can cause a crack, she noted.

"Landscape around the house and keep it healthy with adequate watering and that should help keep a constant moisture level for the foundation," Harris said. However, trees should be no closer than 5 feet from the foundation and preferably 10 feet. Trees suck the moisture out of the soil, and this can create a problem for the foundation.

She stressed that people should avoid a common practice of just watering the front yard to keep it lush while letting the backyard go dry. That causes parts of the foundation to be wet and expand while other parts are dry and contract which could lead to cracking.

"I've learned that you want to keep the ground nice and moist regardless of the weather," Chornyak said. "If you don't water the foundation, you'll wind up with what happened to me."