Crack in concrete help

[Bill Jobe]

Sounds like good advice, John. I am going to do just that.

Thank you all for your suggestions and comments.

[Rich Engelhardt]

There are several things I can think of that can force concrete upwards. One is a tree root

In our one case - - @ our house - -it's a family of chip monks. The little devils tunneled under the driveway & the concrete both sank & heaved.
I've lived with it for a few years. Once we get a few $$ ahead of the game, I'll have it busted up and repoured.

@ one of our rentals, it was just plain old water & poor to no drainage - coupled with a bad concrete job to begin with. Water was draining under the pad of the enclosed back porch and causing the whole pad to heave and crack.
Ran about $2000 to have the guy come out & bust it all up, lay down gravel, the lay mesh and pour new concrete.

[Bill Jobe]

A very messy maple tree did raise a section of sidewalk about 6", only about 10 feet or so from the crack in the garage floor. I dug down and cut it off, then dug down and reset all the sections of concrete by hand.
The sidewalk is directly between the tree and the garage.
That was about 20 years ago.
I think I'll check that out first. My wife hates that tree anyway and has asked me many times to cut it down.

[Carlos Alvarez]

chip monks

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chip-monks-600x410.jpg

[Chase Mueller]

?????

chip-monks-600x410.jpg

I feel like you had this pic on standby

[Bill Jobe]

We do in fact have an unusually large number of chipmunks, however they are not celebrities, to the best of my knowledge. All I know about them is that the one who seems to speak for the whole is refered to as "Alvin".
Must be the alpha male.

[Rich Engelhardt]

?????

LOL! Yeah - I need to update my speel checker

[Al Launier]

Bill, a number of concerns have been voiced above and they are all relevant, so I understand the concerns are about the concrete slab "sinking" in different places including near the house. I also don't know if this is an attached or detached garage.

And, not knowing where you live I'm wondering if you are located in a frost zone. If so, with all that concrete movement going on, have you confirmed that the footings are below frost level? Frost can "work" in unexpected ways, raising & lowering, i.e. buckling the ground which frequently leads to foundation & slab cracking. If the footings and foundation walls are poured during cold weather seasons the concrete can freeze and not cure properly and thus not achieving the strength it should have. I don't know if this is relevant to your situation, especially if yours is an attached garage, and I hope it isn't, but you might consider the local building codes to ensure they protect against this and inquire if they have inspection records of your home.

Hoping for the best.

[John K Jordan]

...have you confirmed that the footings are below frost level?

That's an excellent point. A case example: my sister had a large and beautiful 3-story house built, very expensive. When they noticed some settling they found the contractor had cheated them and put down only 4" thick "footers" under the walls. He tricked the inspector so the records were wrong. (Turns out he had diverted the concrete deliveries to where his son was building a car wash.)

It cost them nearly $50,000 to dig under the walls and add proper footers. There was no financial straight-forward recourse through the contractor who declared bankruptcy, put all his property in another person's name, then committed suicide.

It would be simple (but not especially easy) do dig down in some key spots and examine the footers.

JKJ

[Bill Jobe]

The garage is attached.
My house was one of the first 4 homes built in the addition it now has grown to.
It was literally thrown together in 1969 when it was built. The plumbing alone is a joke. When they replaced the water tower many years ago, the increased pressure caused a pin hole often enough that I replaced all of the plumbing. The same cheap copper pipe was used behind walls, as well. A clear violation of code.
Inspections prior to purchase are a joke. Unless something causes them to be harmed, inspectors are miles of smiles.