In this video we talk about house settling, when is it considered normal,
how long it lasts for and when you should actually worry.
That's coming right up.
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Hi everyone, Karl Yeh here with another Homebuyer's School
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anything. So today I'm joined by Kurt Gibson director of field operations with
Brookfield Residential and the topic we're gonna cover today is house
settling and foundation issues. So Kurt what exactly is house settling and what
is considered normal house settling?
Well house settling is a process you go
through, I mean obviously there's a lot of wood that's built, put into a home.
What comes from the forest it takes time to dry out, it goes through what we call
a kiln-dried process and you know I— obviously that brings the moisture
content out of it or in some cases adds into it, depends where it is and
settlement can occur that also can occur in the foundation situation. There's a
lot of water moisture in a foundation concrete especially when it's poured it
takes a long time for that water content to come out as that water is coming out
you know, there will be shrinkage and it's very normal for houses to settle
going through and basically finding where it is and sitting in its place.
So when a new homeowner comes into a home, when you say shrinkage what does
that mean?
Well the shrinkage means like a lot of times you're gonna see is what
it again—has a lot of moisture in it, meaning you bring it from the—from the
forest and you bring it in and you put it through its process, it basically
goes through almost like a oven and it brings it down. Kiln dried materials is
typically in around the 13 to 19 percent range for lumber and you want—
the idea is to bring it down so it brings it the best conditions to work
into it, but again it depends on the environment. Calgary's a very dry
climate, Vancouver is a very moist climate so relative humidity can be much
different, and from that what happens is the wood shrinks when you're
screwing in drywall into wood basically what happens is it's a metal screw
or metal nail and then what happens is the wood starts to shrink and then all
of a sudden it starts to move and you can see some slight cracks or popping
and nails and screws.
Will you see your house actually maybe shift or—?
You can't physically see it typically. The movement takes time I mean
it's a year process typically. In Calgary in particular because we have four—
should have four distinct seasons you want to go through all four seasons so
it really adapts to all the different seasons from the different humidity
level, obviously the winter is gonna be much different,
typically dry in Calgary, where June can be very moist you know, and it
really has to adapt to those surroundings and you know you want to go
through that and you all see cracks there for you know a lot of builders—
reputable builders will come out at the end of the one year or even two years and
do a lot of repairs on the drywall cracks. It is actually quite common for builders
to do that.
So besides some of the cracks on the walls what other things would
you consider normal house settling?
Oftentimes you can see doors and windows, they
start to stick you know, you can see baseboard coming away from the walls on
stairs sometimes you can see them coming away from the wall they need to be
dapped, it's just movement you can see cracking in a baseboard and casing—it's
not just drywall, there's a lot of different things you know, nothing's—
it's all normal I mean typically through the Alberta new home warranty—
warranty programs, sixteenth of an inch is pretty acceptable measurement and
then usually especially with drywall cracks anything that's more than about
twelve inches long typically is what they consider it out of normal.
And if you want to know more about the Alberta new home warranty check out our
video above. Now, so how long does--how long does a house normally settle for?
I think you mentioned a year but—
It does, I mean—well typically a house can
settle—I mean it can be moving—it really is a living organism, I mean it's no
different than anything else, we're part of a planet and you know, there's always
moving and everything going on but the most majority of settling happens in the
first year and again it's that whole cycle of going through four seasons and
being able to put it in one place, you gotta remember all
the materials are being brought in from sometimes all over the world but
certainly all over North America and they are brought into one location and
now they're being fixed in one spot and now those are now coming together and
basically being one unit or one big building.
So how would we know the
difference between say normal house settling and actual foundation issues?
Well foundation issues typically if you have a—I mean I will say this one thing
that's a very common misconception is concrete, typically people get nervous
when they see cracking any kind of concrete they see, they get nervous and
typically it's exactly the opposite. Concrete typically will crack, if you
don't have cracking it's very unusual so it's very common. It's really about the
magnitude of the cracking you know, again that's sixteenth of an inch or an eighth
of an inch with you know, and for a long period or long spans can be the concern
you know, real major foundation cracks you'll typically see walls with major
crack in them at the corners of doorways or windows and stuff, you would see
that you know. Again I know people will worry about that but most reputable
builders take the time to make sure that their their foundation is built on solid
ground, there's things like we call soil bearing tests which makes sure that it's
all built properly on proper ground and it's all checked beforehand. Any
reputable builder would be taking that step to do that and it's not as much of
a worry as people think it is, plus the evident on warranty again—they have or
through the mandatory warranty through one, two, five and ten year program there's
a ten year structural program or warranty to that and the bottom line is that
you're covered with that on any concerns that may come about.
Is there any point when you should actually worry?
I guess I've never seen, it I've been in the
business 30 years, I would never say that I've ever been in a house
feeling like it was ever gonna fall down, so no I I would say it's pretty
unlikely, I mean obviously every personality is different and some people
are gonna be more nervous, especially with not having the knowledge or
experience. It's our job to try and as a builder to try and curb those concerns
but no, I mean if you saw physical moving you can actually physically see, it would
probably be a concern but I've never ever seen it or heard of its own.
So let's—you were talking about the Alberta new home warranty and after 10
years, so let's say you had the house for 15 years and you start seeing the
same kind of foundation issues, is it still covered? Like is there any—is it
covered by any type of insurance or home warranty that you—?
Typically after the 10
years the mandatory warranty does not cover it anymore but I certainly
know builders that if they're still around would be wanting to make sure
that they're taking care of that. Again I would say it's so rare, typically if you're
gonna see any movement it's going to be in the first year to something
coming up after 10 years it's very rare, like I mean you're
probably talking—I've only heard about a couple times in all the time it's
happened so it's very-very rare and again you can—there's always solutions
to it you know, whether it's mud jacking which means you're putting you're
pouring basically fresh concrete in and trying to raise the house up, there's
always solutions that can be found out to make these things work.
People can worry but there are solutions, I mean it can be expensive but I would
also say for the most part you're generally covered one way or another by somebody.
Okay and the final thing I wanna talk about
is noises, what are some normal noises when the house is settling?
Well again when you have wood connecting with metal or concrete kind of
connect with wood, you know you'll often hear pops you know or you know things
like that, especially people moving into their house you can hear trusses,
there's an enormous amount of material— wood material in that and they'll hear
pops coming from the roof and or you know—their ceiling and
that's very common for it to happen you know, you'll hear shifts, you might step
somewhere, a little creak here and there, very common for those kind of things
to occur. Again it's just the house going through its movement, to try
and figure out where it needs to be.
Great! Do you have anything else to
add in terms of house settling?
I think the big thing is that I think people
worry about it a lot but it really is a natural part of it, I mean it's no
different than a human being. I mean we go through changes and a house goes
through changes, and we'll always go through changes and for people to
understand that it's very important that I think they oftentimes we feel like
we're building a house is it's like a diamond, it's not perfect. It's so many
people involved in it and there's some things that can occur so it's important
for people to know that that does happen.
Perfect. So the question of the day for you is,
when you bought your new home, did you have any house settling issues?
let us know in the comments section below. Thank you very much and we'll
catch you next time.
That's another edition of
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