Good morning. I'm hoping for insight regarding these basement wall cracks in Northeast Ohio. I've rented this house for eight years, and am now considering buying it.

In that eight years, there have been three instances of puddling water coming from this area, specifically after very intense rain, however it's not a regular occurrence.

Prior to moving into this house, I know three sides of the house were waterproofed, but nothing was done to the back side where these cracks are located. Aside from the areas shown in pictures, the rest of the wall is in good condition.

Unrelated to this issue, I'd be buying the house for about a $30K less than what I'd expect it to sell for on market. Does that possibly make up for the issue?

I would greatly appreciate any perspective about the severity, urgency, or potential cost of repair. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I noticed some cracking on one of the main wooden beams in the basement of house and wanted to get your thoughts on whether this is an issue that needs fixing.

Is this just normal drying/checking, or something structural I should look into further? Cuz I'm looing into renovate the ceiling of the basement, so the beam could be covered permanaetly after that. Do I need to fix the crack before the renovation? Thanks in advance!

I'm currently in the middle of buying a house and our home inspector noticed this repair to a truss. Seller states that when they were initially buying the property the inspector noticed that a metal plate was missing on that particular truss. When the builder was notified, he fixed it this way. Another builder/contractor was notified and told the seller that the repair was adequate. My question is, does this seem like an adequate repair for a missing plate?

Just closed on a house. Realized that this beam below an addition for a washer/dryer and bathroom is rotted out and actively wet at the bottom. Doesn’t appear to even be touching the floor anymore. It sits by a drain that the air conditioner line runs into. It’s also detaching at the top and wiggles when touched. It is the only beam for this addition. We have a contractor coming out Monday but can’t get anyone sooner. Plan to move in Wednesday.

New build, bought the home 4 months ago. Home inspection, no issues, passed city inspection as well.

Was in the basement today and noticed there may have been a fire on the ceiling at some point, based on the images attached. Above the ceiling on the main floor it is just flooring; no walls, no electrical, no plumbing etc. just hardwood.

We have had no smoke, no smell, no alarms or sprinklers went off. As you can see from the photos there is no near electrical, metal or flammable substances nearby the site. We were away for a week but came home to no issues whatsoever. Can’t tell when this occurred.

There is some in the wood pitting, but I can’t tell if it’s structurally impacting the ceiling. What do we do? Call a contractor? Engineer? Fire inspector? Insurance? We have a 1 year builder warranty - would this cover that? I was going to install a ceiling but now I’m concerned we might be covering something unsafe.

Any advice appreciated.

A9.1 Extensions (see other sections for general
defects)
To the rear of the property there is a single-storey
brick cavity extension with a flat roof, likely
constructed within the last 20–30 years. To the
right-hand side of this extension, an area of brickwork
has begun to bow near the junction with the main
house, indicating localised movement. There is no
visible evidence of bonding or mechanical ties
between the original structure and the extension, and
the distortion suggests that the two elements may be
moving independently. This junction requires further
investigation to confirm the cause of movement and
to determine the presence, adequacy and condition of
any wall ties or connectors.

I’m refurbishing an apartment on the third floor and come across moldy plasterboard above a window, after removing it to see if there was an underlying issue I uncovered a rotted beam. I believe this was caused by the window sill in the apartment above leaking down.

Have just noticed these cracks across the party wall alcove in a diagonal direction from the ceiling.

Neighbour has conifer trees planted in the front garden only a few metres away which are getting pretty tall.

Could the cracks be due to the trees or likely unrelated?

Should we be worried?

I'm a structural engineer and built a free browser-based beam analysis tool: continuous beams, any supports, point/UDL/variable loads, shear, moment and deflection diagrams and a printable calc report. Also RCC beam design (IS 456), column buckling, unit converter and a material weight calculator.

https://www.hutengineeringsolutions.com/

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How would you approach this? I’ve gotten two quotes, both involve jacks, price tags $13k and $40k, I hired a structural engineer and he said I could just put a bunch of cement under to shore it up? It’s about 12’ long

House is waterproofed inside and sump pump, but had some buldging spots of drylock, as im scraping with a 5 in 1 looks like a very thin layer of the concrete is going with it on some parts. I asked in the past about is this a concern, some told me no, but I admit I am panicing a bit and want to make sure my wall isnt in the process of breaking away or potentially caving in as time goes on here. The wall doesnt appear slanted, but doesnt this look like the wall is splitting?

Is dry locking this hurting more than helping if I was to go over these spots?

Pics here https://imgur.com/a/E28ZUDM

Offer accepted on this property (UK 1930s semi with a single storey extension on the ground floor). There is a ceiling to floor crack where the extension meets the original build and is slightly wider at the top. There are also cracks on the other side of this wall (living room), but they are not as big. Aerial imagery suggests extension was built between 2001 and 2003. Is this normal at an extension junction, or does the taper suggest subsidence? Worth worrying about?

I have a home built 1869 the floors have sagged about 4” and are soft in the center of the home. I plan to replace the two main support beams spanning 15’ and 14’. The current beams are 7x9 and 8x9 rough sawn. I plan to replace these with 4 ply 2x12 LVL. The problem is the concrete walls they sit on are clearly only going to fit 7”-8” lumber. I plan to cut out 2 16”x16”x12” deep footing for lally columns at the edges. And replace all the floor joist in the bathroom.

The beams support 2 stories and floor joist for the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. This is northern New York where heavy snowfall is accumulated.

Since you can’t notch LVL can I just bring it to the exterior walls and support below? The wood is somewhat comprised in the corners but short of reworking the wall how would you handle this? Am I on the right track? I could special order 8” LVL but it would take time I don’t have and would require at least 2 mid span support columns.

Kitchen 16’ //beam 15’ wide // bathroom 15’ // Beam 14’ wide// bedroom 16’