Hi All, Need some advice: Please check these cracks in brick veneer and advice how serious are they? Is it possible that the structure of the property is on risk or compromised? How much should be the cost to repair? Should these he left as is or addressed now? No cracks noticed inside the property. The building is about 50 years old, brick veneer. Thank you.
Are you buying it or living with it? The crack would indicate a slab or footing failure/differential settlement. Has it cracked inside, along the slab, floor dropped or on the other outside wall?
It’s just mortar cracks. Very common. The first step is to monitor the cracks. Measure the width of each. You should then observe the cracks over a year and see if they get bigger or smaller with the weather or the seasons. if they don’t change, then have them filled and forget about it. (Just because a house has settled - or cracked because it was built pre-expansion joints, does’t mean there’s a serious problem.) That’s what I did with my house - and 10 years later, it’s still fine. If you want a professional opinion before hand, then get a structural engineer who specialises in residential construction. If you get an underpinner immediately, you are assuming you know the cause and you might end up getting unnecessary underpinning!
Agree that a builder would be best. Our son had similar cracks due to the slab heaving, caused by lack of drainage over 50 years. Underpinning wasn't needed once the drainage was fixed (by my hubby digging around the back and sides and draining it properly) and then the soil was allowed to dry out and the house stopped moving. But had we not been aware, he could have fallen for the "has to be done" diagnosis by one injection style underpinning company. Initial estimate was something like $10k and that went up to about $28k within ten minutes. A friend who is a regular style underpinner looked at the job. We didn't know what his profession was or we would have called him in much earlier. He advised us about getting the drainage right, allowing it to settle and dry and then perhaps spot underpinning on one corner would be enough. Thankfully, we knew him and trusted him. We'd had two underpinners look at the job before realising this was his bread and butter. First said regular underpinning needed doing, second was the injection style underpinning, and ultimately no underpinning was required. But a couple of photos without any idea of soil type, drainage, slope of land etc is not going to be able to judge how bad (or not) this cracking might be.
Get a structural engineer to do a report, my last one for a similar job was $650, then got one 2yrs later to check movement.
A builder to confirm. But my 2c is: NSW, clay, drought, standard. When it rains, the cracks will close up somewhat. Brivk piers may need some filling or not. Builder will tell you. Am living with bigger than that and not worried.
I think the OP would be better off with a structural engineer specialising in residential construction. I say this because builders don’t usually design the engineering for their own construction, rather they get it engineered and follow the engineer’s instructions (plans).
Fair enough, I concede to your greater experience. However, depends where it is and if a structural engineer can be found within a 150km radius.
