Houses move a little. Wood swells and shrinks with the seasons, soil settles under a foundation, and small cracks show up in almost every home sooner or later. Most of that is normal. The tricky part is knowing when movement has crossed the line into a structural problem.
Structural repairs can be expensive, but they’re almost always cheaper when they’re caught early. Here are four signs worth paying attention to, plus what tends to cause them in Eastern North Carolina homes.
1. Cracks that are wide, angled or growing
Hairline cracks in drywall, especially above doors and windows, are common and usually cosmetic. A crack deserves a closer look when it:
- Is wide enough that you can see into it
- Runs in a stair-step pattern through brick or block
- Is noticeably wider at one end than the other
- Keeps getting longer or wider over time
- Shows up alongside other signs on this list
On a crawl space home, check the foundation walls and the brick or block piers you can see from outside. Here’s a simple trick. Mark the ends of a crack with a pencil and write the date beside it. If it has grown past your marks a few months later, that’s useful information for whoever evaluates it.
2. Floors that slope, sag or feel bouncy
A marble that rolls across the kitchen, a soft spot near the tub or a floor that dips toward the middle of a room can all point to trouble underneath. In crawl space homes, the usual suspects are floor joists or girders weakened by moisture, rot or wood-destroying insects, and piers that have settled or shifted.
Wet wood is the common thread. Framing that stays damp for years can rot, and it’s exactly what subterranean termites look for. A sagging floor next to a bathroom often means a long-running leak. That’s why the crawl space gets a careful look during a home inspection, and why a termite inspection makes sense if you notice sagging you can’t explain.
3. Doors and windows that stick or won’t latch
A door that suddenly rubs at the top corner, a window that won’t open after years of working fine or a latch that no longer lines up can mean the framing around it has shifted. Check the gaps between the door and its frame, too. A gap that’s wide at the top on one side and tight on the other often means the opening has gone out of square.
Not every sticky door is structural. Humidity swells wood doors in summer, and loose hinge screws cause plenty of trouble. Tighten the hinges first and see whether it changes with the seasons. If several doors in the same part of the house start sticking around the same time, that’s more telling.
4. Gaps where things should meet
Structural movement often shows up at the joints of a house. Watch for:
- Gaps opening between walls and the ceiling, or between baseboards and the floor
- A chimney that’s leaning or pulling away from the house
- Brick steps, porches or stoops separating from the foundation
- Trim and crown molding pulling apart at the corners
- A roofline that sags or dips in the middle
A sagging ridge can mean problems with rafters, trusses or the walls holding them up. It’s one reason every home inspection we do includes a free drone roof inspection by FAA-certified pilots, so the whole roofline gets a good look without anyone walking on it.
What causes structural problems?
In a humid climate full of crawl space homes, moisture is behind a lot of it. Poor drainage lets water collect against the foundation and soak into the crawl space. Damp crawl spaces rot sills, joists and girders over time, and they invite termites, which can hollow out framing without leaving much visible on the surface.
Other causes include soil that shrinks and swells through wet and dry spells, undersized or poorly supported framing, and remodels that removed or cut into load-bearing members. Sometimes it’s a combination, which is why finding the cause matters as much as spotting the symptom.
What to do if you notice these signs
Don’t panic, and don’t ignore it. Take photos, note the date and keep an eye on whether things change. Then get a professional opinion.
A home inspector can document what’s going on and look for likely causes like moisture, termite damage or drainage, and will point you to a structural engineer when something needs a deeper evaluation. Because we’re a termite and pest control company as well as home inspectors, we look at a house with wood-destroying insects and moisture in mind. If you’re buying a home, it’s far better to learn about structural concerns before closing than after.
