5 Signs of Structural Damage to Your Home
Signs of structural damage in your home are subtle and easy to miss. Without routinely looking for problems in your home, you can easily overlook the minor issues that can cause big problems.
Identifying structural problems in your home can help save money and keep your home safe.
Structural problems in your home can cause a cascading effect that can lead to big financial problems in your future.
- Cracks in the walls or ceiling
- Uneven walls, ceilings, and floors
- Sticking or damaged windows and doors
- Cracks in the foundation
- Damp or loose subfloors
These are the easiest and most common symptoms to watch out for if you are trying to stay ahead of structural damage.
What causes structural damage?
Most of the homes in the United States are built on ground that continues to expand, contract, and move. These are known as active soils and cause the most damage to homes in the United States over other natural events.
Contractors must build homes in alignment with building codes to ensure your home is stable and reliable. Building to code helps you avoid a lot of danger that can arise from building a home irresponsibly.
These codes cannot stop the forces of nature constantly at work.
When building a home, contractors compact the ground so the dirt doesn’t compact later under the home’s weight. It is difficult for the land around a home to be sufficiently packed to prevent any contraction under the soil.
The soil’s continued contraction and subsequent sinking is known as settling. A little settling is normal for most homes.
On occasion, one part of the home may settle faster than another. This can cause one side of the home to sink faster than the other. Uneven sinking causes cracks in the ceiling, walls, and foundation of your home.
The causes of your house settling faster in one area over another aren’t consistent. Varying levels of soil moisture can cause different settling speeds, regular expansion and contraction of the ground from freezing and thawing, or even erosion from natural rainfall or water flows.
The 5 Symptoms of Structural Damage
1.Cracks in the Walls or Ceilings
Most homes are made from wood. There are several advantages to using wood to build houses. One, it’s cheap, two, wood is a little more flexible than stone or concrete, and three, it is much lighter than concrete and stone.
Houses built with wood have a small amount of flexibility, allowing them to absorb shock. Their lightweight and relative flexibility make them capable of withstanding small shockwaves from natural events like earthquakes.
But this feature also allows them to hide stress in their structure. These areas harbor tension until it becomes too much and can snap different parts of your structure.
After settling the wrong way, the sheetrock covering the wood frames will likely be the first thing to break. You will notice cracks from floor to ceiling where the pressure from the settling house damaged the sheetrock. You may also notice cracks across the ceiling near the same location you find your walls damaged.
2.Uneven walls, ceilings, or floors
Sometimes structural damage isn’t quite as noticeable as a few cracks.
Before such breaks occur, you may notice some unevenness in your home. Maybe the floor is slanted, causing objects to always roll one way.
Another common symptom of structural damage is a growing unevenness between walls and ceilings. The uneven distribution of weight in your settling foundation won’t always cause cracks running the length of the wall; sometimes, all the warning you get is what appears to be a growing gap between the wall and ceiling.
This break comes as the wall gradually starts to sink on one end of the home. Significant damage can occur in the joists holding your ceiling together as your home continues to settle.
3.Sticking or Damaged Windows and Doors
A slightly leaning house can cause problems with independent objects like windows and doors.
A slight dip in one corner of your home can warp the areas around windows and doors. These objects aren’t designed for this kind of movement. The pressure exerted on their corners and borders can cause the windows and doors to get jammed or broken in their areas.
4.Cracks in the Foundation
The foundation is the most common place to find symptoms of structural damage.
Uneven settling of your home directly affects the foundation as it is closest to the soil. Your home doesn’t have to move very much to cause cracks. Movement as little as half an inch can create noticeable gaps in the foundation and walls of your home.
You can find signs of settling as cracks in the foundation. It can either be small spiderweb cracks generally funning top to bottom or cracks and chips in the foundation where weak points in the cement crack and disconnect from the foundation.
5.Damp or loose subfloors and crawlspaces
Water is the most common cause of moving soil. Watching how water interacts with structures in your neighborhood can help you identify structural damage quickly.
Water can erode dirt from under your foundation. This is prevalent in areas prone to rain or flash floods.
Houses built in wet or marshy areas may see more movement due to the higher volumes of water in the soil. The higher your area’s water table, the more likely something heavy like home will sink, and sink unevenly.
Check your crawlspace or subfloors for excessive moisture. This is another indicator that your house is at risk of uneven settling and structural damage.
Hudson Douglas Public Adjusters to Rescue You From Your Insurance
Having a disagreement with your insurance when you see the first signs of structural damage may seem like a contradiction. After all, they are there to help you, right?
Not always.
Yes, you pay them to help you in a time of need, but they tend to play things down to save on costs. That’s why you occasionally need an adjuster to help you get the most out of your insurance.
Contact Hudson Douglas Public Adjusters now to help you work through a structural damage claim with your insurance company.
