I'm not sure if I am giving you TMI, or if these issues are related or not. I want to thank you in advance in taking the time to read this novel ;o). I'll try my best to describe my concerns, but I am not too familiar with the lingo so, please be patient.


We have a slab house that is a little over 6 years old (built in May, 2003).

Concrete slab without basement. Vinyl siding.

We bought it a little over 3 years ago (Dec, 2005).

A year after occupying the house, we started noticing cracks above the door frame in our Master's bedroom & the Master's Bathroom, Front entryway & the kitchen, and the door leading to the garage.

The size and length of the cracks have remained relatively the same, except for the one in the Master's bedroom & the Master's Bathroom. In less than a year, the crack has more than doubled the size from 7inches to 15 inches. Also noticed that there is a slight more gap in the door frame (left top corner), by the crack. Note: This is a sliding door, not a regular type/size door.

In our master's bedroom, the door to the master's bathroom is located on the center on the east side wall. The Master's bedroom door is located on the right side on the north side wall. The Master's bedroom door is terribly hard to close again. We just adjusted this in order to close properly this past February.

We have tile flooring in our bathroom. We have a large rug in there, so the floor RARELY gets wet. There is one vertical line; about 15 inches long where grout has started to come off.

Last March, we have been noticing bubbles along-side our ceilings in a bedroom and the hallway next to the bedroom. It kind of looks like water has leaked through the roof, onto the ceiling. At first, we thought we had a leaky roof, but after some investigation, there were no leaks.

We heard from somebody that these bubbles occur when wood constricts, moves , etc. We were told just to scrape off the bubble, spackle and paint over. We are noticing more problems alongside the ceiling throughout the house. They don't look like bubbles this time.

Let me try to explain... Imagine a paper plastered on smoothly along the side where the ceiling meets the wall... Ours is not smooth, rather, rough, wavy, as if the paper is shifting.

One last concern, imagine standing in our straight hallway and look to the RIGHT SIDE. On the top corner, where the ceiling meets the wall, there is a slight gap there and the other adjacent side.

So, with the peeling corners, crack above door frames, trouble closing doors, grouts coming off and slight gaps between ceiling and walls sign that we might have a foundation problem or are these all normal wear and tear in houses?

What do I do? Who do I call? What do I need to know?

Sounds like your house is settling. Have you experienced a lot of heavy rainfall within the past year or so? Is the house/property on top of a spring near the surface perhaps? This all sounds to me like water intrusion/settling problems with the slab foundation. Best to call in a professional and get an estimate before your home really shifts much more. And yes, this does sound expensive to fix.

First of all its hard to tell if you have real problem with your house settling or if is just a little more than normal.

What looks like water damage is water damage. Wood does not give off air bubbles when it contracts.

Find and repair the leaks. Repair the cracks in the drywall but only after you are sure you have stopped the water.

Look at you gutter down spouts. Are they piped to carry water away from the house. Look at the grading, does water settle in the north east corner? It sounds to me like you may have a drainage problem that is softening the ground at that corner, allowing that corner to sink.

Sounds like your house is settling. Have you experienced a lot of heavy rainfall within the past year or so? Is the house/property on top of a spring near the surface perhaps? This all sounds to me like water intrusion/settling problems with the slab foundation. Best to call in a professional and get an estimate before your home really shifts much more. And yes, this does sound expensive to fix.

We have experienced a lot of heavy rainfall this year. We live in Missouri. We live in a subdivision where most of the top soil were strip out, before building the house. Our house is sitting on a lot of clay. The closest body of water is about 3 miles - a really tiny lake. What kind of professional do I call?

First of all its hard to tell if you have real problem with your house settling or if is just a little more than normal.

What looks like water damage is water damage. Wood does not give off air bubbles when it contracts.

Find and repair the leaks. Repair the cracks in the drywall but only after you are sure you have stopped the water.

Look at you gutter down spouts. Are they piped to carry water away from the house. Look at the grading, does water settle in the north east corner? It sounds to me like you may have a drainage problem that is softening the ground at that corner, allowing that corner to sink.

I definitely does not sound like water damage. What you see is the drywall tape in the corner rippling from the building shifting. Since the tape is bent in a 90 degree angle on a long run, it needs to be straight or one side will "ripple".

Also, I would have someone come out and "shoot" the house with a transit to see exactly where and how much the house has dropped. I used to live in Missouri years ago, and there were always 2 big problems with their slab homes. The biggesty is a lack of good footings for slab homes. The may have made a 10" slab, but below tha main load bearing walls, there should be a deep and wide footing poured and then tied up to the slab.

First of all its hard to tell if you have real problem with your house settling or if is just a little more than normal.

What looks like water damage is water damage. Wood does not give off air bubbles when it contracts.

Find and repair the leaks. Repair the cracks in the drywall but only after you are sure you have stopped the water.

Look at you gutter down spouts. Are they piped to carry water away from the house. Look at the grading, does water settle in the north east corner? It sounds to me like you may have a drainage problem that is softening the ground at that corner, allowing that corner to sink.

We do have very poor drainage in the east side of the house. There are down spouts on the north-east corner and the south-east corner, but the down just drains down about 3 inches away from the house. The land on the east side of the house is just flat, so the water just stays there.

Who should I call?

i definitely does not sound like water damage. What you see is the drywall tape in the corner rippling from the building shifting. since the tape is bent in a 90 degree angle on a long run, it needs to be straight or one side will "ripple".

Also, I would have someone come out and "shoot" the house with a transit to see exactly where and how much the house has dropped. I used to live in Missouri years ago, and there were always 2 big problems with their slab homes. The biggesty is a lack of good footings for slab homes. The may have made a 10" slab, but below tha main load bearing walls, there should be a deep and wide footing poured and then tied up to the slab.

I want to take action before any more damage is done, but I am just at a lost right now as far as who to call. A friend told me to call a home inspector, but I don't see how they can help me. They will probably just tell me what I already suspect and charge me an unnecessary fee.

Do you know who I need to contact?

The first thing you need to thi nk about is installing french drains. To do so, you dig a 2' wide trench 3' deep against the house all the way around. At the bottom you have a couple inches of loos stone then a 4" pvc pipe that has t's coming down from your downspouts. extend this trench either out to the curb or to a low spot in the back yard away from the house, and make sure it's pitched away from the downspouts and house( 1/4" per ft.) once you make all these connections, fill the trench around the house with about 2' more or less of loose stone and top off with good soil. The trench leading away from the house you can just backfill with dirt. The 4" pipe they use4 for french drains has holes in it, so you have to make sure these holes are not facing down around the house. The purpose for them is to collect any water that goes down to the ground directly. This will keep any water from pooling around the house and prevent any more to wash out.

Without actually seeing the house its hard to tell for certain, but your best bet would be to call a surveyor to see if he can check the house to see how far out of whack it has really gotten, or if you know the builder, talk to him and see if he can check it out for you with his transit. All builders have them.

Once you have everything else taken care of, fixing the rippled corners is easy. Just score the corner with a utility knife to cut through the drywall tape and peel off the side that's rippled. Then new mud and tape in the corners.

As previously stated, you need to install drainage for the down spouts to carry water as far away from the house as possible. All of the water off the roof is softening the ground causing settlement of that corner. Find that roof leak and then you can begin repairing the cracks.

Thank you so much for all of the info. I better get started!