Avoiding Classic
Cracks
by William Lotz
We recently saw a condo project in
the Lakes Region of New Hampshire,
where the foundations were poured
with no reinforcement on
uncompacted fill. And they asked why
the foundation had settlement cracks!
The condos were set back 75 feet
from the lake on a slope. The lake
side of the foundation was poured on
the fill removed from the street side.
The result was that the rear half of the
foundation was on undisturbed soil
and the front half was on noncompacted
fill. In some buildings, the
concrete foundations were poured on
frozen soil. This, in itself, is rather
stupid.
Lawsuits worth about $500,000 are
ending against the builder of the
condos for a variety