🔍
House settling vs foundation problems: What's normal and when to worry - YouTube
Channel: Homebuyer's School
[0]
In this video we talk about house
settling, when is it considered normal,
[3]
how long it lasts for and when you
should actually worry.
[6]
That's coming right up.
[8]
Welcome to Homebuyer's School
[9]
brought to you by Brookfield Residential.
[14]
Hi everyone, Karl Yeh here with another
Homebuyer's School
[16]
video, a channel where you
get the latest strategies tactics and
[20]
tips from home buying experts and
remember if this is your first time on this
[23]
channel and you want to get the latest
strategies from the experts, hit the
[27]
subscription button below, hit the little
notification bell so you don't miss
[30]
anything. So today I'm joined by Kurt
Gibson director of field operations with
[33]
Brookfield Residential and the topic
we're gonna cover today is house
[37]
settling and foundation issues. So Kurt
what exactly is house settling and what
[43]
is considered normal house settling?
[45]
Well house settling is a process you go
[48]
through, I mean obviously there's a lot
of wood that's built, put into a home.
[52]
What comes from the forest it takes time
to dry out, it goes through what we call
[56]
a kiln-dried process and you know I—
obviously that brings the moisture
[61]
content out of it or in some cases adds
into it, depends where it is and
[65]
settlement can occur that also can occur
in the foundation situation. There's a
[69]
lot of water moisture in a foundation
concrete especially when it's poured it
[73]
takes a long time for that water content
to come out as that water is coming out
[77]
you know, there will be shrinkage and
it's very normal for houses to settle
[81]
going through and basically finding
where it is and sitting in its place.
[85]
So when a new homeowner comes into a
home, when you say shrinkage what does
[89]
that mean?
[90]
Well the shrinkage means like
a lot of times you're gonna see is what
[94]
it again—has a lot of moisture in it,
meaning you bring it from the—from the
[99]
forest and you bring it in and you
put it through its process, it basically
[103]
goes through almost like a oven and it
brings it down. Kiln dried materials is
[109]
typically in around the 13 to 19
percent range for lumber and you want—
[114]
the idea is to bring it down so it
brings it the best conditions to work
[116]
into it, but again it depends on the
environment. Calgary's a very dry
[119]
climate, Vancouver is a very moist
climate so relative humidity can be much
[124]
different, and from that what
happens is the wood shrinks when you're
[127]
screwing in drywall into wood basically
what happens is it's a metal screw
[132]
or metal nail and then what happens is
the wood starts to shrink and then all
[136]
of a sudden it starts to move and you
can see some slight cracks or popping
[140]
and nails and screws.
[142]
Will you see
your house actually maybe shift or—?
[146]
You can't physically see it typically.
The movement takes time I mean
[150]
it's a year process typically. In Calgary
in particular because we have four—
[155]
should have four distinct seasons you
want to go through all four seasons so
[159]
it really adapts to all the different
seasons from the different humidity
[162]
level, obviously the winter is gonna be
much different,
[164]
typically dry in Calgary, where June can
be very moist you know, and it
[168]
really has to adapt to those surroundings
and you know you want to go
[172]
through that and you all see cracks
there for you know a lot of builders—
[175]
reputable builders will come out at the
end of the one year or even two years and
[180]
do a lot of repairs on the drywall cracks.
It is actually quite common for builders
[184]
to do that.
[185]
So besides some of the cracks
on the walls what other things would
[190]
you consider normal house settling?
[193]
Oftentimes you can see
doors and windows, they
[195]
start to stick you know, you can see
baseboard coming away from the walls on
[201]
stairs sometimes you can see them coming
away from the wall they need to be
[205]
dapped, it's just movement you can see
cracking in a baseboard and casing—it's
[209]
not just drywall, there's a lot of
different things you know, nothing's—
[213]
it's all normal I mean typically through
the Alberta new home warranty—
[218]
warranty programs, sixteenth of an inch
is pretty acceptable measurement and
[222]
then usually especially with drywall
cracks anything that's more than about
[225]
twelve inches long typically is what
they consider it out of normal.
[229]
And if you want to know more about the
Alberta new home warranty check out our
[233]
video above. Now, so how long does--how
long does a house normally settle for?
[238]
I think you mentioned a year but—
[239]
It does, I mean—well typically a house can
[241]
settle—I mean it can be moving—it really
is a living organism, I mean it's no
[245]
different than anything else, we're part
of a planet and you know, there's always
[248]
moving and everything going on but the
most majority of settling happens in the
[252]
first year and again it's that whole
cycle of going through four seasons and
[256]
being able to put it in one place, you
gotta remember all
[259]
the materials are being brought in from
sometimes all over the world but
[262]
certainly all over North America and
they are brought into one location and
[266]
now they're being fixed in one spot and
now those are now coming together and
[270]
basically being one unit or one
big building.
[274]
So how would we know the
[276]
difference between say normal house
settling and actual foundation issues?
[280]
Well foundation issues typically if you
have a—I mean I will say this one thing
[284]
that's a very common misconception is
concrete, typically people get nervous
[288]
when they see cracking any kind of
concrete they see, they get nervous and
[292]
typically it's exactly the opposite.
Concrete typically will crack, if you
[296]
don't have cracking it's very unusual so
it's very common. It's really about the
[300]
magnitude of the cracking you know, again
that's sixteenth of an inch or an eighth
[304]
of an inch with you know, and for a long
period or long spans can be the concern
[308]
you know, real major foundation cracks
you'll typically see walls with major
[314]
crack in them at the corners of doorways
or windows and stuff, you would see
[318]
that you know. Again I know people will
worry about that but most reputable
[323]
builders take the time to make sure that
their their foundation is built on solid
[327]
ground, there's things like we call soil
bearing tests which makes sure that it's
[331]
all built properly on proper ground and
it's all checked beforehand. Any
[336]
reputable builder would be taking that
step to do that and it's not as much of
[340]
a worry as people think it is, plus the
evident on warranty again—they have or
[344]
through the mandatory warranty through
one, two, five and ten year program there's
[348]
a ten year structural program or warranty
to that and the bottom line is that
[352]
you're covered with that on any concerns
that may come about.
[356]
Is there any point when you should
actually worry?
[360]
I guess I've never seen, it I've been in the
[362]
business 30 years, I would
never say that I've ever been in a house
[365]
feeling like it was ever gonna fall down,
so no I I would say it's pretty
[368]
unlikely, I mean obviously every
personality is different and some people
[372]
are gonna be more nervous, especially
with not having the knowledge or
[375]
experience. It's our job to try and as a
builder to try and curb those concerns
[380]
but no, I mean if you saw physical moving
you can actually physically see, it would
[383]
probably be a concern but I've never
ever seen it or heard of its own.
[388]
So let's—you were talking about the
Alberta new home warranty and after 10
[391]
years, so let's say you had the house for
15 years and you start seeing the
[396]
same kind of foundation issues, is it
still covered? Like is there any—is it
[401]
covered by any type of insurance or home
warranty that you—?
[405]
Typically after the 10
[406]
years the mandatory warranty does
not cover it anymore but I certainly
[411]
know builders that if they're still
around would be wanting to make sure
[416]
that they're taking care of that. Again I
would say it's so rare, typically if you're
[420]
gonna see any movement it's going to be
in the first year to something
[423]
coming up after 10 years
it's very rare, like I mean you're
[427]
probably talking—I've only heard about a
couple times in all the time it's
[431]
happened so it's very-very rare and
again you can—there's always solutions
[435]
to it you know, whether it's mud jacking
which means you're putting you're
[438]
pouring basically fresh concrete in and
trying to raise the house up, there's
[442]
always solutions that can be found out to
make these things work.
[444]
People can worry but there are solutions,
I mean it can be expensive but I would
[448]
also say for the most part you're generally
covered one way or another by somebody.
[451]
Okay and the final thing I
wanna talk about
[454]
is noises, what are some normal noises
when the house is settling?
[458]
Well again when you have wood
connecting with metal or concrete kind of
[462]
connect with wood, you know you'll often
hear pops you know or you know things
[467]
like that, especially people moving into
their house you can hear trusses,
[470]
there's an enormous amount of material—
wood material in that and they'll hear
[474]
pops coming from the roof and or
you know—their ceiling and
[477]
that's very common for it to happen you
know, you'll hear shifts, you might step
[482]
somewhere, a little creak here and there,
very common for those kind of things
[486]
to occur. Again it's just the house going
through its movement, to try
[490]
and figure out where it needs to be.
[492]
Great! Do you have anything else to
[494]
add in terms of house settling?
[495]
I think the
big thing is that I think people
[498]
worry about it a lot but it really is a
natural part of it, I mean it's no
[501]
different than a human being. I mean we
go through changes and a house goes
[504]
through changes, and we'll always go
through changes and for people to
[507]
understand that it's very important that
I think they oftentimes we feel like
[511]
we're building a house is it's like a
diamond, it's not perfect. It's so many
[514]
people involved in it and there's some
things that can occur so it's important
[517]
for people to know that that does happen.
[520]
Perfect. So the question of the day
for you is,
[522]
when you bought your new home,
did you have any house settling issues?
[526]
let us know in the comments section
below. Thank you very much and we'll
[529]
catch you next time.
[531]
That's another edition of
[533]
Homebuyer's School, tune in next time for
[535]
more expert tips and tricks, and visit
[538]
homebuyersschool.ca to bring you one
[540]
step closer to finding your dream home.
[543]
As with everything, it would be great if you
[546]
like and share our videos. Also please let
[548]
us know if you have any home buying
[550]
questions you want us to answer.
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage