What exactly is house settling and what is considered normal house settling? 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.
Kiln dried materials is generally in around the 13 to 19 percent variety for lumber as well as you desire– the concept is to bring it down so it brings it the most effective problems to infiltrate it, however once again it depends on the atmosphere. Calgary’s an extremely completely dry climate, Vancouver is a very damp environment so relative moisture can be a lot various, as well as from that what happens is the timber shrinks when you’re screwing in drywall right into timber basically what happens is it’s a metal screw or metal nail and then what occurs is the wood starts to reduce and then all of a sudden it begins to relocate as well as you can see some slight cracks or popping and nails and screws.
Will you see your house actually maybe shift or–? 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 gon na 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.
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 got ta 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.
How would we know the difference between say normal house settling and actual foundation issues? 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 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 gon na fall down, so no I would say it’s pretty unlikely, I mean obviously every personality is different and some people are gon na 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 gon na 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 wan na 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 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.
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 gon na 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. 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 got ta 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.
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 would say it’s so rare, typically if you’re gon na 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.
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.
Originally posted 2019-11-05 20:22:38.
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