Foundation Issues

Hi Patricia Feager - You had me at "A real estate agent should never go out of their area of expertise..."!! Great blog - for us lay people, it gives us an idea of when to get a certified structural engineer involved. Thanks so much for the info. 

Plumbing, electrical, or structural problems.... I call the experts!

Hi Patricia

I suspect many of us can recognize that there may be an issue with the foundation but know that it needs further evaluation by an expert who can determine what the issues might be, what's causing them, how to correct them and the cost. Another issue we see here from time to time are cracked slabs and depending on the cause that can get mighty expensive to fix.

Jeff

We as real estate agents should always refer anything of a structural nature to an enginer.. same for electrical or plumbing issues.. This is beyond our expertise and if we do give advice it could come back to bite us in the .... .

Call the professionals in the fields where we are not educated about, exactly Patricia! I recently had a client ask me if granite should be sealed....uh, hmmm. I told him to call the granite contractor who installed the slabs in their new home for the answer.

Patricia crumbling foundations have become a major issue here in CT in the last few years.  There is a compound in the cement mixture which was quarried in a part of CT which if two much water is added to it will cause foundations to start crumbling about 20 years later.  It appears the only way to correct this situation is to raise the house from the foundation and pour a new one.  This is a very expensive process, and insurance companies are refusing to pay for it.  Right now our State Legislature is looking into this and coming up with a bill to address it, but in the mean time the homeowners with these foundations are up a creek until a solution is found.

Hello Patricia, most of the foundation issues I've seen here in Alabama are either due to too much or not enough moisture. George's scenario in #8 is one I've not encountered fortunately.

Patricia great wisdom in this post, not only should an agent not go beyond his/her scope, when it comes to foundations, but the same advice not to offer Legal Advice, Plumbing or Electrical to name a few....Endre

Patrica

Informative post on foundations. Thanks for sharing your insight.

Good luck and success.

Lou Ludwig

I learned a lot from reading your post. Thank you for sharing. Have a good day.

Hi Patricia - Good advice - it's always the right move to call in the experts, especially with foundation issues, which, with our expansive soils, are not uncommon.

Good advice to contact a Structural Engineer for foundation issues. Agents can have knowedge, but we leave it to the experts to give the whole story.

You are absolutely right. Must call in the experts and not try to conquer something out of your real estate realm.

Good post on foundations.  I used to build homes and ALWAYS recommended a soil test and an engineered foundation design to prevent this scenario. 

I see you are from Dallas.  Interesting fact about foundation issues.  Here in North Texas, were' in the epicenter of foundation issues for the country.  Draw a line from Houston through Dallas up to Tulsa and go 60 miles on both sides.  That area accounts for 4x more foundation issues then the rest of the country combined.  The reason?  Our black gumbo clay.  Great for farming, absolutely terrible for building on.

An agent should also try to be an attorney or a CPA or anywhere we make judgements that are absolute when we are not proficient.