House Settling - What to do?

[Thomas J]

House is over 12 years old and notice that the home is settling.  The front door is now slanted with the top of the door tight against the jam and the bottom of the door protruding forward.  I know in the USA there are companies that lift the homes and either shim or mud jack (pour cement) to level the home.  What do people in Thailand do and does anyone know of good company in Pattaya that performs such a service? 

[baansgr]

Serious answer...they build a new one....just plane the door, temprorary measure

[CharlieH]

Are you sure its the building ? and not the door, if its a timber door they can and do swell and twist with heat/ humidity etc. check the door more closely first.

Are there any crack in the exterior mortar bigger than 4mm ?

[Thomas J]

1 minute ago, CharlieH said:

Are you sure its the building ? and not the door, if its a timber door they can and do swell and twist with heat/ humidity etc. check the door more closely first.

Are there any crack in the exterior mortar bigger than 4mm ?

CharlieH

I am reasonably sure it is settling.  There is a gap also in the front deck. I don't see any cracks in the mortar.  There were some very tiny spider vein cracks throughout the homes interior in the mortar.  

[seajae]

we had to have the area behind our house reinforced as the ground was moving, the builder dug holes then drove concrete pipes(8" plus) into the ground 18" apart and a few wide(staggered) right along the back of the house then poured 6" plus of concrete over it, did the job. Thais also dont really use kiln dried doors a real lot so they can buckle/warp badly, also had it here as well as at our new units and we had to replace them, if the house is settling there will be cracks opening up inside the house as well as outside especially on internal corners, small spider vein cracks are normal in most houses anywhere in the world as they settle. Biggest problem is they put the red dirt fill on the land then virtually build the house on it straight away before it is compacted which is what happened to our house at the back, the fill ends at our back fence a metre behind the back wall and the builder of all the houses in the street/village has run all the drain pipes to the back of the houses and it just sits right along back fencelines the surface below the fill which is helping  cause the problem. There was a gap about 1" plus between our back wall and the footpath around the back of the house that alerted us the land was subsiding, its just the cheap and nasty way thai builders work unfortunately, our house was about 15 years old when we did it

[Artisi]

42 minutes ago, seajae said:

we had to have the area behind our house reinforced as the ground was moving, the builder dug holes then drove concrete pipes(8" plus) into the ground 18" apart and a few wide(staggered) right along the back of the house then poured 6" plus of concrete over it, did the job. Thais also dont really use kiln dried doors a real lot so they can buckle/warp badly, also had it here as well as at our new units and we had to replace them, if the house is settling there will be cracks opening up inside the house as well as outside especially on internal corners, small spider vein cracks are normal in most houses anywhere in the world as they settle. Biggest problem is they put the red dirt fill on the land then virtually build the house on it straight away before it is compacted which is what happened to our house at the back, the fill ends at our back fence a metre behind the back wall and the builder of all the houses in the street/village has run all the drain pipes to the back of the houses and it just sits right along back fencelines the surface below the fill which is helping  cause the problem. There was a gap about 1" plus between our back wall and the footpath around the back of the house that alerted us the land was subsiding, its just the cheap and nasty way thai builders work unfortunately, our house was about 15 years old when we did it

A good reason to build on friction piles. 

[Kwasaki]

1 hour ago, Thomas J said:

I am reasonably sure it is settling.  There is a gap also in the front deck. I don't see any cracks in the mortar.  There were some very tiny spider vein cracks throughout the homes interior in the mortar.  

Sounds all pretty normal to me minor subsidence in houses should be expected over many years.

Get door fixed, fill the gaps. 

[JAFO]

1 hour ago, Thomas J said:

I am reasonably sure it is settling.  There is a gap also in the front deck. I don't see any cracks in the mortar.  There were some very tiny spider vein cracks throughout the homes interior in the mortar.  

It sounds pretty normal for around these parts. Our home is 5 years old and we noticed a few 'Settling" type events ( especially with our Teakwood doors but as Charlie said, most of the was seasonal swelling).  We built our house on long standing land meaning we did not add dirt. We have seen a few spider mortar cracks and we just fill them in and touch up paint.

 

I wouldn't worry about it to much. All houses settle. Now if you start popping floor tiles then that's a different problem.  

[Crossy]

Assuming your home is of conventional Thai column-and-beam construction. 

 

If you don't see any cracks in the walls (which are not structural) then you are probably not seeing differential settlement and it's likely seasonal variation in your wooden components.

 

Our home is on 16m driven piles (on bangkok mud). The house hasn't gone anywhere, but the surrounding land (along with the patios etc.) has dropped a good inch over the last 6 months due IMHO to the very dry weather.

 

Once the damp starts I'll be filling the (pretty significant) gaps and waiting for the next round of very dry weather.

 

[PETERTHEEATER]

The soil is drying out at depth in the absence of rain and settling increases. Once the rains come the soil will swell and cause a slight lift to structures restoring some of the problems to normal. My sixteen year old villa has 'settled' more this year than ever before and the block infill between the perimeter path and main support beam has cracked at the join and stepped out due to the concrete path settling. Like many houses, mine is built off the ground on a RC frame and there is a void underneath.

[Guderian]

OP, it's worth checking that the drain around your house hasn't collapsed. That happened with the cheap cement drain pipe the developer used for my bungalow and during the next rainy season I had some significant settlement at the back of the house. The whole drain had to be replaced in the end. It happened to the place two doors up from me, a Thai lady bought it and installed a 2,000 litre water tank above the drain at the back of the house (it's just a pathway there so nowhere else to put the tank). As soon as she started filling it up the entire tank dropped through the path as the drain collapsed under the weight. It's just the shoddy building practices that are common here.

 

To check your drain, go as far upstream (up the gradient that the drainpipe is laid on) as you can and stick a hosepipe down the drain. Turn it on and then check at each of the drains downstream to see that the water is flowing through them and isn't being blocked by a collapse. It's probably not that, or I hope not as it's a sod of a problem to fix, but it's quick and easy to check it so why not?

[justin case]

where I live, the house had 3 new garage place re-done

 

ground is sinking, house slightly tilting

 

good idea to never buy

[AgMech Cowboy]

19 hours ago, Crossy said:

Once the damp starts I'll be filling the (pretty significant) gaps and waiting for the next round of very dry weather.

@Crossy What will you be filling the gaps with? The new room that my wife added to the house in 2014 is 'separating' from the house. I've got about a 1/2-1 cm gap in some places.  I was thinking about using Acrylic Patch or Crocodile brand repair cement (or the repair mortar). They also had another product, but I'm not seeing it at the moment on HomePro's website.

 

@Thomas J My apology for highjacking your thread.  I am also curious about any companies that can lift the foundation and fill in underneath to support the house, too.  Fortunately, the houses built by the developer in our village did a really good job, it's the add-ons that have got me.

[Crossy]

3 minutes ago, AgMech Cowboy said:

I was thinking about using Acrylic Patch or Crocodile brand repair cement (or the repair mortar).

 

Yeah, one of the "repair" mortars, these supposedly are more flexible, but in reality they still crack as the two sides move further.

[Chazar]

47 minutes ago, justin case said:

where I live, the house had 3 new garage place re-done

 

ground is sinking, house slightly tilting

 

good idea to never buy

Better  idea  to  build  it  yourself  checking  the sub strata  first.........which  I  did.

[CharlieH]

18 minutes ago, AgMech Cowboy said:

@Crossy What will you be filling the gaps with? The new room that my wife added to the house in 2014 is 'separating' from the house. I've got about a 1/2-1 cm gap in some places.  I was thinking about using Acrylic Patch or Crocodile brand repair cement (or the repair mortar). They also had another product, but I'm not seeing it at the moment on HomePro's website.

 

@Thomas J My apology for highjacking your thread.  I am also curious about any companies that can lift the foundation and fill in underneath to support the house, too.  Fortunately, the houses built by the developer in our village did a really good job, it's the add-ons that have got me.

This is the one I have used and got to now if needed. First time I used this was 2 yrs ago and the crack hasnt reappeared since ! I use it wherever needed now with confidence. Happily its not often, but keep some in store anyway. Great stuff.

[NCC1701A]

21 hours ago, JAFO said:

Now if you start popping floor tiles then that's a different problem.  

i was renting a super nice house five years ago and that is exactly what started happening. in just two months I watched the floor pop up across the entire living room.

and a really bad crack formed in one of the interior walls. Looked like what we call earthquake cracks in California.

 

besides that it was going to collapse at any moment that house was really nice.

[AgMech Cowboy]

3 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

i was renting a super nice house five years ago and that is exactly what started happening. in just two months I watched the floor pop up across the entire living room.

and a really bad crack formed in one of the interior walls. Looked like what we call earthquake cracks in California.

 

besides that it was going to collapse at any moment that house was really nice.

I'm sad for the owner, but your last line was what got my reaction.