I have recently noticed a crack in my ceiling paint near the front door, and a crack in my driveway. No cracks on walls or floor. I am wondering if my foundation has shifted. Should I be worried? I have never dealt with this before .Should I call a home inspector, structural engineer, or a foundation repair company to come check it out to see if I need foundation repair?

How old is your house? The paint and driveway cracks are likely unrelated as the house and driveway are likely separate slabs. Some degree of settling is expected for a new home……

eloc62 said:

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I have recently noticed a crack in my ceiling paint near the front door, and a crack in my driveway. No cracks on walls or floor. I am wondering if my foundation has shifted. Should I be worried? I have never dealt with this before .Should I call a home inspector, structural engineer, or a foundation repair company to come check it out to see if I need foundation repair?

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It greatly depends on the age of your house and the extent of the cracks? Is the paint crack very short in length and width? Typically, slab irregular movement will show up in wall or window corner molding separation and/or diagonal cracks extending away from the top corner of doors and/or fine hairline cracks in floor tiles.

Driveways often get hairline cracks in our area. If they are wide or numerous, I would have them looked at by an engineer.

Personally, I would not worry too much unless your get more or those that are present get larger. Make sure you keep the soil around the house somewhat uniform in moisture content.

How big is it? Minor cracks in your sheetrock typically aren't anything to be concerned with. Your driveway would have almost certainly been poured at a different time and with different specifications and subgrade than your foundation, so it cracking isn't indicative of any issues with your foundation.

i have a newish (20 month) old house that has a few of what you recommended. I had to seal around a window frame because it was separating from the wall and letting cold air in, and at least 1 crack in a bathroom tile. Also some cracking in the exterior brick that I raised to the builder that said it was just "settling".

Would you get someone to come out and take a look?

sirhc said:

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i have a newish (20 month) old house that has a few of what you recommended. I had to seal around a window frame because it was separating from the wall and letting cold air in, and at least 1 crack in a bathroom tile. Also some cracking in the exterior brick that I raised to the builder that said it was just "settling".

Would you get someone to come out and take a look?

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We have a house that's less than 5 years and I just started a thread below about needing a painter to come in and seal gaps , caulk, and paint due to settling. I think what you're saying is pretty normal for the area. Just make sure the gaps/cracks aren't widening too much. Also, you can walk around outside and look at the side view of your slab. If you don't see cracks there that are larger than say 1-2 MM then it's normal settling.

I remember I started getting cracks in my driveway within a year of build. I think its all pretty normal.

We are "blessed" with a clay soil that shrinks and swells as it drys and gets wet here in town. Houses built on slabs will eventually have some movement and cracking of drywall and bricks.The builders over the years have gone to expansion joints in the bricks and other things to attempt to lower the prevalence and impact on the house. This past dry summer here really impacted soil movement if you weren't keeping the ground fairly uniform in water content in areas around the foundation. Houses in my 20-30 year old neighborhood that haven't had any issues have some this fall/winter. For new construction, most builders contracts list some distance the cracks must exceed before they are going to step in under warranty. It could be a foundation issue and need some piers added for the future if it gets large enough. Not a question of if but a question of when locally. Then the question becomes is it minor or at what point does it start to become an issue to throw money at to fix.

how long is foundation typically under warranty for?

Thanks for the responses. I feel a little better now. BTW, my house was built in 2006 and it is in South CS.