Castlegate Community

Correction my previous post.

The crack I was told during the inspection was NOT wide enough for me to force them to fix it!!!

http://landscapedrainagesolutions.com/id74.html

Above is an explaination of what might be happening to your home. I built a home in Chandler in 1995 and had a crack go directly thru the kitchen to the garage. The cause was expansive soil, known to be all over the east valley. The good news is it stopped at 1/2 inch. I had a neighbor who had a serious problem where they had to reset doors.

I believe my problem was how I watered my landscaping. I had plants close the the house and over watered them. I expect that the water went to the footing and dampened the soil under the slab close to the edge of my home. Dry soil in the middle of the home and wet soil at the edge, well something had to give. I'll never know for certain, but the crack stopped when I stopped watering the plants next to the house.

The post tension slabs seem to keep the cracking problem at bay. A couple of builders in the area use this in their construction. Providence did not use post tension in their slabs. I knew this when I built my home. But I also understood that my lot had sat for several years and that the soil may have had time to reach a "happy" place and not expand. So far so good. But only time will tell. But for certain, I watch how much water I use on the plants close to the house.

Again, I have no idea why some homes develop cracks and the house next to you does not. But if you have time, dig down next to where the crack starts and see how far down the damp soil goes? It may only take one spot to cause the water to dampen the soil under the slab..... But I can't tell you for certain any one event will be the cause of a crack.

Good luck,

Mike

Mike,

Thats for the info. I wish that would be the answer for me. My back yard has no watering what-so-ever. So as far as the patio crack that is unknown. I do have 3 small plants/bushed on the side of my house. They get watered 2x a day for like 11 minutes. That I would think would not be too much water from a drip system. But I will check in the mid of the day and see if I dig down a bit if the dirt is still damp.

B&B