I bought a 20 year old house a few months ago. The house has about 12 cracks in various places starting at the corners of windows and doors on the second level of the house. The structural engineer inspected them and said they are just normal and nothing to worry about. A month ago I marked the end of each crack so that I can keep an eye on them for a while. In the last month all the cracks except two stayed the same. The two cracks are at the upper corner of the door between a bedroom and a bathroom. They got about 1 inch longer each. The area on the first floor underneath that doorway has no cracks or any other indication of settling. I'm concerned about the cracks because they keep getting longer. Is there anything I can do to figure out what's going on? How much bigger can the crack get before I should be really concerned about it? Right now the first crack is about 6 inches long and then there some wall with no crack and then another crack about 7 inches long ( basically the second crack is not even touching the door frame but is in the middle of the wall). The structural engineer said the foundation is fine. The wooden beams supporting the middle of the house started failing ( which caused sloping of the floor in two rooms towards the wall separating them) and we will need to put a post in the crawl space to stop it from going down any further. However, that wall is not right underneath the problem doorway. It's about 8 feet away. With no cracks on the first floor, how concerned should I be about cracks on the second floor, especially the two that are getting bigger?

thank you.

JenniferB1066

This is what the engineer's letter says: "The wall is supported by a double 2x10 girder below, which has deflected excessively. The girder supporting the kitchen/dining room wall should be supported by the addition of a mid-span post."

This issue did not come up on the initial home inspection (before buying the house). We complained to the home inspectors and they replied saying that they did notice the sloping floors but that it "did not appear to be a structural issue". Do you think this constitues a "structural issue" or not?

ballengerb1

Yes it certainly is a structual issue and the inspector should have caught it. I'm not going to give you legal advice regarding the inspector but you should explore to determine if the inspector has any financial responsibilty here. A span post or whats also called a jack post will help but you can't place them directly on the 4" concrete basement floor or whatever is down there. A 1' x1' hole cut into the floor and then dug out to at least 12" deep and then a new footing gets poured. This may be beyond you DIY skills, don't know. You may benefits from reading this: Raising A Floor With A Hydraulic Jack