I do HVAC and know next to nothing about foundations, footings, and masonry. But I'm looking at this house to buy and found this problem after making an offer on it. Need to know if it's worth pursuing or not.
They laid the brick veneer on top of the patio on the back porch, and the patio has sunk about 1/2". In fact that left post isn't even touching the patio. That tells me the house is structurally sound and it's just the patio, I think.
There is a gap below the bricks around most of this patio and there aren't any cracks. But in the weak areas, between the windows and doors, it is cracked and the bricks have fallen down. Notice the gap between the door sill and the bottom of the windows.
I also dug around the rest of the brick and found that the brick is laying on concrete. Seems like they should be sitting on those narrow footing blocks, no?
There is also evidence of cracking in front of the house around some windows. They've covered it up with new mortar but it was fairly easy to spot since it was much cleaner than the rest.
What I'm hoping is that all of the bricks were properly laid everywhere but this patio, and I can just cut them out and put up some cedar in this area.
Thanks in advance for your help!!
They laid the brick veneer on top of the patio on the back porch, and the patio has sunk about 1/2". In fact that left post isn't even touching the patio. That tells me the house is structurally sound and it's just the patio, I think.
There is a gap below the bricks around most of this patio and there aren't any cracks. But in the weak areas, between the windows and doors, it is cracked and the bricks have fallen down. Notice the gap between the door sill and the bottom of the windows.
I also dug around the rest of the brick and found that the brick is laying on concrete. Seems like they should be sitting on those narrow footing blocks, no?
There is also evidence of cracking in front of the house around some windows. They've covered it up with new mortar but it was fairly easy to spot since it was much cleaner than the rest.
What I'm hoping is that all of the bricks were properly laid everywhere but this patio, and I can just cut them out and put up some cedar in this area.
Thanks in advance for your help!!








