Home / Foundation Crack Repair
Cracks in the house are the most common reason Boerne homeowners call about their foundation. Some are normal shrinkage and some are a sign the structure is moving, and the pattern usually tells you which.
When a foundation moves, the house frame racks slightly and the weakest points in the finish give first. That is why drywall cracks show up at the corners of doors and windows, where wall and ceiling meet, and along taped seams. A thin, straight crack along one seam is often just drywall shrinkage or a missed tape joint. A crack that runs diagonally off the corner of a door frame, gets wider at one end, or comes back after it was patched is more likely tied to the foundation. In Boerne these cracks often open during the hot, dry part of the year when clay soil shrinks, then partly close after a wet spell. A crack that opens and closes with the seasons is telling you the soil under the house is moving.
Doors and windows are built square. When the foundation under them shifts, the opening goes out of square and the door or sash starts to rub. Sticking doors that point to foundation issues tend to rub at the top corner on the latch side, leave an uneven gap above the door (wider on one side than the other), or stop latching even though the strike plate has not moved. Sticking windows that bind in one season and slide freely in another follow the same pattern. A single humid-weather door that swells is a wood problem. Several doors in the same part of the house that all go out of square is a foundation question worth an inspection.
Fine hairline cracks in a garage slab, random spiderweb cracks in a driveway, and short vertical cracks in a poured concrete wall are often shrinkage that happened as the concrete cured. They should be watched, not panicked over. A good way to track a crack is to mark the ends with a pencil and the date, and measure the width with a crack gauge or a coin. If it grows over a few months, it is active. Our guide to signs you need foundation repair covers the rest of the warning signs.
Foundation leak repair in Boerne means one of two things, and it helps to know which you have. The first is water coming in through a crack, which happens in hillside homes with a partial basement, a below-grade garage, or a retaining stem wall. Those cracks are sealed from the inside with injected polyurethane, which expands to fill the crack and stays flexible enough to handle small movement. Structural cracks that are not leaking are more often injected with epoxy, which bonds the concrete back together. Walls that are bowing get carbon-fiber straps or other bracing. The second meaning is a plumbing leak under the slab, which is a plumber's repair first and a foundation check second. The slab foundation repair page explains how slab leaks and foundation movement are connected, and the basement waterproofing guide covers below-grade walls.
Sealing a crack makes it look better and keeps water out, but it does not stop the movement that made it. If the inspection shows the foundation has settled, the long-term repair is piering and leveling the low area, covered on our foundation leveling page, and then patching. Patching first and leveling later just means paying for the patch twice. An honest inspection should tell you which cracks are cosmetic, which are structural, and which ones only need watching.
No. Drywall shrinks, framing lumber dries out, and homes settle slightly in their first few years. Cracks that run diagonally from door and window corners, keep coming back, or show up with sticking doors are the ones that point to the foundation.
In the Hill Country, clay soil dries and shrinks in the hot months and swells again when rain returns. The foundation moves a little with it, and doors go in and out of square. Seasonal sticking is a sign the soil under part of the house is not staying at a steady moisture level.
You can patch and paint drywall, and it is a good idea to mark and date a crack first so you can see if it comes back. If it reopens within a season, the movement is still active and a structural look is worth it before more cosmetic work.
Epoxy cures hard and bonds the two sides of a crack together, so it is used where strength matters. Polyurethane foams and stays flexible, so it is used to stop water from coming through a crack. Neither one fixes a foundation that is still settling.
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