HOUSE SETTLING
In this article we talk about house settling, when is it considered normal, how long it lasts for and when you should actually worry. Welcome to our website. Today we’re proud to share another article on the latest strategies, tactics, and tips from building experts. So let’s look at house settling and foundation issues.
what is house settling?
Well, house settling is a gradual process the house goes through, I mean obviously, if there’s a lot of wood that’s built, put into a home. What comes from the forest will take some time to dry out, it goes through what we call a kiln-dried process and you know that obviously drains the moisture content out of the wood or in some cases adds into it, depends where it is being used. Settlement can also occur in the foundation. Concrete foundations will have moisture content at the time of pouring and the moisture will dry out eventually. As the moisture and water drain out, the concrete will obviously shrink and settle in its place. Shrinkage here means like a lot of times what you’re going to see is that a lot of moisture in it, meaning you bring it from the forest and you bring it in and you put it through its process, it basically goes through almost like an oven and it brings it down.
Kiln-dried materials are typically in around 13% to 19% range for lumber. The idea is to bring moisture down to the best conditions to work with, but again it depends on the environment. Karamoja’s a very dry climate, Entebbe is a very relatively moist climate so relative humidity can be much different, and from that what happens is the wood shrinks when you’re screwing in drywall into the wood. Generally, the wood starts to shrink, and then all of a sudden it starts to move and you can see some slight cracks or popping and nails and screws. The movement takes time I mean it’s a year process typically. In Karamoja in particular because we have two distinct seasons you want to go through all two seasons so it really adapts to all the different seasons.
From the different humidity level, obviously, the colder season is going to be much different, typically dry in Karamoja, where June can be very rainy, and it really has to adapt to those surroundings and you want to go through that and you all see cracks there for a lot of builders— reputable builders will come out at the end of the one year or even two years and do a lot of repairs on the drywall cracks. Engineers usually perform these kinds of repairs quite often.
Other signs of normal house settling?
When you begin to see shutters and windows sticking or your baseboard peeling off the walls, or sometimes your stairs literally breaking apart. It’s not just drywall, there are a lot of different things happening. But it’s all normal I mean typically through the Alberta new home warranty, sixteenth of an inch is pretty much ok but anything beyond 12inches should be treated as an emergency that demands a quick course of correction. https://gotinoconstruction.com/construction-defect/
What is the normal house settling time?
Ideally, every house can settle. I mean it can be moving, it’s really a living organism, I mean it’s no different than anything else, we’re part of a planet and you know, that’s always in motion and everything going on but the most majority of settling happens in the first year and again it’s that whole cycle of going through two seasons and being able to put it in one place, you got to remember all the materials are being brought in from sometimes all over the world but certainly all over Uganda and they are usually local materials.
Normal house settling Vs actual foundation issues
Generally, many people get very worried when they see cracks on their building but in most cases, it’s perfectly a normal occurrence, and the cracks may not mean much because normally concrete will crack. What should be of concern is the magnitude or extent of the damage, again that’s sixteenth of an inch.
Again many people will worry about that but most reputable builders (at least us at Gotino Group) take the time to make sure that their foundation is built on solid ground, we do all soil bearing tests to make sure that the foundation is all built properly on the proper ground and it’s all checked beforehand.
Solutions to House settling and Foundation Issues
There are always solutions to it, whether it’s mud jacking which means you’re putting or pouring basically fresh concrete in and trying to raise the house up, there are always solutions that can be found out to make these things work. People can worry but there are solutions, I mean it can be expensive but I would also say for the most part you’re generally covered.
what are the normal House Settling issues
Well again when you have wood connecting with metal or concrete kind of connect with wood, you know you’ll often hear pops you know or you know things like that, especially people moving into their house you can hear trusses, there’s an enormous amount of material—wood material in that and they’ll hear pops coming from the roof and or their ceiling and that’s very common for it to happen, you’ll hear shifts, you might step somewhere, a little crack here and there, very common for that kind of things to occur. https://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/repair/houses-settle1.htm
Most importantly, I think people worry about house settling way too much but it’s really a natural thing, I mean it’s no different than a human being. We go through changes and a house goes through changes too, and we’ll always go through changes, and for people to understand that it’s very important that I think they often times we feel like we’re building a house is it’s like a diamond, it’s not perfect. It’s so many people involved in it and there are somethings that can occur so it’s important for people to know that things do happen.
Thank you very much and we’ll see you next time. Come back next time for more expert tips and tricks as we bring you one step closer to finding your dream home. As with everything, it would be great if you like and share our articles. Also please let us know if you have any construction-related issues.
