Turned down a house in Oak Ridge after seeing the foundation up close

I was about to put an offer on a cute 3-bedroom in Oak Ridge until I crawled under the crawl space during the inspection. The whole foundation had hairline cracks running through the concrete block and someone painted over them to hide it. The inspector said it would cost around $8k to fix and might get worse with more rain. Has anyone else backed out because of foundation issues they spotted themselves?

3 comments

3 Comments

verawhite28d ago

Jumped right into the same boat when I was looking at a house in Farragut last spring. The foundation cracks weren't even hairline, they were full on zigzag lines running through the blocks and I spotted old patching compound that was flaking off. Inspector said it was likely from the house settling unevenly and would need helical piers installed, which would run closer to $15k if it got worse. Walked away without a second thought because once you see that kind of hidden damage, you start wondering what else they painted over or covered up.

jade_johnson28d ago

Yeah that patching compound flaking off is a huge red flag, @verawhite. I've seen that stuff crumble after one rainy season because they just slathered it on without fixing the actual drainage issue. If they're covering up foundation cracks that bad, you can bet the grading around the house is probably sending water right toward the basement wall. Smart call walking away, once they hide one problem you know there's more.

laura_allen2d ago

Right, because slapping some patch over foundation cracks is basically the home improvement version of putting a bandaid on a broken leg. And hey, if the patching compound is already flaking off, that means it didn't even survive the dry season. Now they probably have a mud pit masquerading as a crawlspace. You dodged a bullet that would have cost you a whole new driveway in repairs. Funny how the only thing they bother to fix is the thing that hides the real problem.