Whatcom County Home Inspection (King of the House): Settling At Your Home

One of the things a home inspector sees a lot of, on the older homes we hope, is settling. We are talking about settling sidewalks, settling steps or even foundations that have settled. When sidewalks settle, it seems that the lower side (unfortunately) ends up next to the home -- so that can lead to runoff water being diverted against the foundation. A foundation settling can be a serious concern. As for the steps, the photo below is a classic example. Granted, you do not need the level to see that they are way lower on the left side but a measurement does help define the degree of the concern. These steps were on a 100 year old home. How much more settling they would do is hard to predict but, in this case, the buyer was not too concerned about it anyway.

Thank you for stopping by.

Steven L. Smith

www.kingofthehouse.com