Bought our first house in august 2024 and its a new build. Builder is one of the big national ones. Weve been noticing cracks appearing in the basement walls over the past few months. Theres 3 vertical cracks, all pretty thin maybe hairline, and one that runs along a cold joint about halfway up the wall. I called the builder and they said its "normal settling" and basically told me not to worry about it. But theres also a crack in the garage floor thats about 4 feet long. Five cracks total in an 18 month old house seems like a lot to me?? Are they right that this is normal or should i be pushing harder on the warranty?
6 Comments
Builder is probably right tbh. Hairline vertical cracks and cold joint cracks are super common in new construction. Concrete shrinks as it cures and most of that happens in the first 1-2 years. The garage floor crack is also typical, almost every garage slab cracks eventually. 5 cracks sounds like a lot but if theyre all hairline its probably just the house drying out and settling in.
ok that makes me feel a little better. is there anything i should do to track them? i dont want to just ignore it and then find out in 5 years its gotten worse and my warranty expired
take photos with a ruler next to each crack and save them somewhere. check again in 6 months. if none of them are wider then youre fine. if any grow past like 1/8 inch or you see horizontal cracking thats different. but vertical hairlines in a new build are about as normal as it gets
Document everything NOW even if the builder says its normal. Take photos, send emails not phone calls so you have a paper trail. Most builder structural warranties are 10 years but they try real hard to classify everything as cosmetic which is usually only 1-2 years. Get it on record that you reported these during the warranty period. If something does develop later youll want proof you flagged it early.
I'd get an independent structural engineer to look at it. Not because i think its necessarily a problem but because a $400-500 evaluation gives you an expert opinion thats separate from the builder who has every incentive to say its fine. The engineer can tell you which cracks are shrinkage (harmless) and which ones might be structural. Plus that report becomes documentation if you ever need to make a warranty claim.
went through this exact situation 3 years ago with our new build. builder said normal, we documented everything, got an engineer. engineer confirmed it was all shrinkage cracks and nothing structural. fast forward to now and none of them have gotten any wider. the garage floor crack got maybe slightly longer but its still hairline. so the builder was right in our case. BUT im glad we got the engineer report because now i dont worry about it. peace of mind was worth the $450