Is it serious if there are small cracks in the fountain floor of the basement? Is there some way to seal them so moisture won't come through?
Also, there is a small gap between wall fountain and floor foundation in one section of the basement. Should I just fill it with something? Or is this also serious :(
Thanks
skylar
industry-links
11-26-04, 10:28 PM
General rule of thumb is this. If the crack is 1/8th inch or wider, it typically is not caused by concrete shrinkage. When concrete dries, it evaporates water and shrinks in size. This will look like a spidered, tree-limb type crack, but will be minimal in width. You can purchase a quick-drying concrete product and fill over the crack for the repair. Jsut cosmetic, nothing serious.
If the crack is wider, and there is a gap along an edge of the floor, you may have a settlement problem. IF the floor is dropping, you may want to look into somethign called mudjacking, which fills voids under the floor and can lift the floor back towards level.
There may be a foundation settlement problem here. Differential settlement commonly shows signs like this. Its basically like one side of your house falling down into the ground but the other parts do not. So you see a gap in places and cracks from the stress placed on the floors/drywall/etc.
Best thing is to monitor or get a professional engineer to examine if you are concerned.