princeton
06-24-2004, 06:50 PM
My basement floor cracked within three days after poured. It had not been poured on Thursday June 3 when I looked it after work. Then I went to look it again on Sunday June 6 and found the floor has poured and cracked. I want to say it cracked BADLY, but I would like to leave it to you experts to determine whether it is really cracked badly or it is just normal hairline cracks. I wonder what is called hairline cracks, does it means cracks as thin as a human hair? My cracks is definitely wider than a human hair. My basement wall is 9 feet high, I had no way to go down to the basement floor on June 6, so I could just look down-toward from the ground. My basement is about 46 feet long (east-west) and 30 feet wide (North-South). There were mainly two crack lines in the north-south direction and one line in the east-west direction, all these lines were wall-to-wall (except one north-south line merged with the east-west line in one end) and therefore they were connected to each other. There were other shorter lines connected to these these three lines. All the lines were curved lines.
I took a picture at that day, which showed more than two-third of the floor.
However, after downsize the picture under 400 pixles (required by the forum) it is hard to see the crack lines. The East-West line runs through the two sump pump pits, one north-west line runs throuth the outer-side sump pump pit, the another north-west line starts near the inner corner (left)and ends at the south wall (right).
From this forum I've learned that these cracks may be result from unproperly cured concrete. It appears to me the floor maybe had dried too fast. Also It seems that control joints (if any) didn't work. Are the two straight lines in the picture control joints? I recently looked it carefully and there is something under the concrete. I also measured the crack last weekend and it is about 1/8 inch wide. I don't know whether is has been widened since june 6.
My warranty says it only covers concrete cracks wider than 1/4 inch. So if it is no longer getting wider, the builder may not fix it for me. Then what can I do? Except that it looks ugly, will it cause any other problems such as concrete strenth or moisture problems? Now my house has been framed. should I require the builder do something before close? Or Can I put another concrete layer when I finish the basement in the future?
Thanks for your comments.
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I took a picture at that day, which showed more than two-third of the floor.
However, after downsize the picture under 400 pixles (required by the forum) it is hard to see the crack lines. The East-West line runs through the two sump pump pits, one north-west line runs throuth the outer-side sump pump pit, the another north-west line starts near the inner corner (left)and ends at the south wall (right).
From this forum I've learned that these cracks may be result from unproperly cured concrete. It appears to me the floor maybe had dried too fast. Also It seems that control joints (if any) didn't work. Are the two straight lines in the picture control joints? I recently looked it carefully and there is something under the concrete. I also measured the crack last weekend and it is about 1/8 inch wide. I don't know whether is has been widened since june 6.
My warranty says it only covers concrete cracks wider than 1/4 inch. So if it is no longer getting wider, the builder may not fix it for me. Then what can I do? Except that it looks ugly, will it cause any other problems such as concrete strenth or moisture problems? Now my house has been framed. should I require the builder do something before close? Or Can I put another concrete layer when I finish the basement in the future?
Thanks for your comments.
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