Some cracks obviously need fixing because there’s water pouring through them. Other cracks are tiny and have sort of a capillary type of bleed. Does a homeowner need to be concerned about those tiny cracks? Adam explains why even non-structural floor cracks need to be addressed sooner rather than later.
Narrator: The topic of today's podcast: Should I worry about my non-structural basement floor cracks? So, Adam, some cracks obviously need fixing because there's water pouring through them. Other cracks are tiny and have sort of a capillary type of bleed. Does a homeowner need to be concerned about those tiny cracks?
Adam: So we got an interesting case here out of the Leominster, MA area a couple weeks ago. And this was floor cracks that had developed after a strong rain event that happened last year. So they were very small cracks in the floor that were basically nuisance cracks for the homeowner. They never really leaked. They were just there. They were kind of just ignored, and the basement was used as just basic storage for the family.
A lot of times we get this question specifically about floor cracks is, what should I do about them? Should I repair them? They then will go online. They'll do some research, and they'll find out, well, floor cracks are generally nonstructural. And that is true. Most floors and homes here or concrete floors are not part of the overall structure of the house in terms of holding up the house and holding up all the rest of the pieces of the house.
Meaning that that floor could be removed or replaced without any sort of major considerations as to securing the house. But what does that mean when there's an issue here? These floor cracks are very small, probably hairline for the majority of their life, and they usually develop pretty early on in the construction phase, usually within a year or two due to the settling of the soil. And they were very small and really not really a concern. Now we fast forward about fifteen years, and we had a large rain event. And that large rain event exposed all of the flaws in the floor. Because there was so much hydrostatic pressure that built underneath this house, it actually heaved the floor and popped it in other locations.
So we've done podcasts in the past where we talked about rain events actually heaving the floor. I had that actually happen in my own house where we had a hairline crack that was undetected for years. It was underneath some tile, and it heaved the floor during a major rain event. So we had to go in and correct that. In this case, you could see lots of small cracks develop. And then when that floor heaving happened, we actually had these cracks split wide open. And so the majority of these cracks went from hairline to quarter inch or more in some cases. Now if they're nonstructural, who cares? Right? Why should we even bother thinking about this? Well, in a basement that was once very dry and easy to use for storage, now you have constant moisture coming up through these larger cracks.
So the floor before was able to kind of withstand a lot of the majority of the moisture that came up. But in this case, once they opened up, they were not. So had the homeowner gone and repaired these cracks preemptively a long time ago, one, it would have been a lot less expensive because they were a lot smaller. But two, it would have had a much better chance at resisting the pressure of that rain event, which caused widespread damage throughout the floor. Now we're a year removed from that event, and now every rain event that has come through here causes moisture coming up through them.
Their floors are now becoming uneven, which is a trip hazard for one of the elderly people that live in the house with the family. So it's more than just, okay, it's not a structural issue, but it's now a lifestyle issue inside the home. There’s moisture, there’s a fluorescence buildup. There's that musty basement smell that now develops. It's now a tripping hazard in the basement. So the photos that we've shared with you on this particular podcast really indicate what happens to these floor cracks if they're left unchecked.
So when you're looking at a house, if you're looking to buy it or you have your own home and you have these nuisance floor cracks, but they've never really been an issue, it's going to be a matter of time before they become one. So one of the reasons why we say we should deal with them earlier is one that's always costly. Right? It's a lot cheaper to repair these when they're smaller and under control than it is when they start heaving.
Now we're talking about grinding surfaces down, and we're talking about doing major reconstruction. We're talking about reinforcing to give some stability to small pieces that break off. The other reason why is that you have things that come through these cracks as they open up over time. One, obviously, water, which is most people's concern because it's obvious and you see it. The other things that you don't really think about very often are radon gases, which is obviously something we have to deal with in New England quite a bit. And it's because it's a heavy gas, it's just low in the basement. It tends to come through floor cracks. The other area that we are concerned about is any sort of wood destroying insects. So we've talked about this in the past where we're talking about wood boring beetles as well as termites. They don't need very much room. They only need about a sixteenth of an inch or sometimes less to find their way into the home. And once they find any way into the home, they start doing their damage.
So sealing off floor cracks is a good way to make sure that that's prevented because they do find their way through there. We see ants all the time when we're doing repairs when we start clearing them out. There's always colonies in these little floor cracks, so we always try to make sure that they're cleared out before we start repairing them.
And then the final thing would be obviously that musty basement smell. When you start putting flooring down or any sort of tile down over hairline cracks, that moisture gets trapped because you have a warm basement space, cold concrete, moisture out of the floor. That condensation causes it to actually cause that musty basement smell. So in the case that we looked at here, this is far removed from that early stage repair, and this is what it looks like after you kinda let it go for too long. This is probably two to three times more expensive than it would be if they repaired it three or four years ago. It has nothing to do with the cost of materials. It has everything to do with how much damage occurred because this floor was disconnected.
So while they're not structural cracks, generally, for floor cracks, it's always something to consider as a preventative maintenance because it does cause downstream issues, both health as well as the health of your home. So you can take a look at them, have a professional like us evaluate them with you. Usually, we can give you an idea as to, you know, what stage you're at and how we can repair them with cost efficiently as well as keeping disruption down to you. So just keep an eye on those floor cracks.
Narrator: Thanks, Adam, for explaining why even nonstructural floor cracks need to be addressed sooner than later, and preferably by a professional like A1 Foundation Crack Repair.
Narrator: If you have a basement water problem and think you need a professional, or, if you’d like more information on foundation crack repair and basement waterproofing topics, please visit A1FoundationCrackRepair.com or call Adam at (866) 929-3171. Or you can email Adam at info@a1foundationcrackrepair.com. Thanks for listening and keep that basement dry.