A foundation carries everything above it, so when something changes down there the signs usually show up somewhere else first. A door that will not latch. A new crack running up from a basement wall. A floor that feels like it slopes toward one corner. Owners in Green Bay and Manitowoc often live with signs like these for a while before deciding that someone should look at the foundation itself.
This article covers what a foundation inspection involves when a licensed structural engineer performs it, what sorts of conditions call for one, and what you are holding at the end of it. The principal engineer at Curva Consultants holds Wisconsin PE License No. 47224 and evaluates foundations for residential and commercial buildings across northeast Wisconsin.
When a Foundation Is Worth a Closer Look
Not every crack means something. Concrete shrinks as it cures, and fine hairline cracking in a basement wall is often just that. What matters more is whether something is still moving, and whether the pattern points at the structure rather than at the finishes.
Conditions that generally warrant an engineering evaluation:
- Cracks that have widened, lengthened or opened further since you first noticed them
- A foundation or basement wall that leans, bows inward or has shifted sideways
- Stair-step cracking through block or brick, particularly near a corner
- Floors that slope, or interior doors and windows that bind in more than one room
- Separation where a porch, stoop, addition or garage slab meets the main building
- Water entering through a crack that used to stay dry
- A purchase, an addition or a change of use where the existing foundation would have to carry more than it does now
Two of these together say more than any one alone. Cracking plus a floor that has gone out of level usually means the ground under part of the building is behaving differently from the ground under the rest of it. Our earlier articles on when a foundation crack is worth worrying about and on telling cosmetic cracking apart from structural movement go further into reading the cracks themselves.
What a Foundation Inspection Involves
Most of the work is observation and measurement, done in an order that builds a picture rather than chasing the first thing that looks wrong.
It usually starts with whatever record exists: original drawings if there are any, past repair work, permit history, and what the owner has watched change over time. That last part is often the most useful thing available, because it is the only evidence of movement over a span of years.
From there the evaluation moves outside and then in. Outside, the grade around the building, the drainage, the downspout discharge, settlement in adjacent slabs and walkways, and the condition of exposed foundation wall all get looked at. Inside, the basement or crawlspace walls, the slab, columns and posts, beams, the framing bearing on the foundation, and the places where loads from above come down into it.
Measurement matters here, because small amounts of movement are difficult to judge by eye. Floor levels get measured across the whole building, walls get checked for plumb, and crack locations and widths get recorded so there is a baseline to compare against later. Where it is not yet clear whether movement is active or finished, the sensible recommendation is often monitoring over a period of months rather than repair work now.
Where the question turns out to be about the soil under the building rather than the structure sitting on it, a soils investigation may be the right next step, and the report will say so.
How This Differs From a Home Inspection
These two get mixed up, and the difference matters when you are deciding who to call. A home inspection is a broad survey of an entire property, covering roof, mechanical systems, electrical, plumbing and visible condition throughout, usually inside a real estate transaction and on a schedule measured in hours.
A structural foundation evaluation is narrow and deep. It looks at one question, in engineering terms, and answers it in writing under a professional seal: what is happening to this structure, what it likely means, and what should be done about it. Curva Consultants does not perform home inspections. The work here is structural engineering, and it is the kind of follow-up a general inspection can point toward when something in the foundation falls outside its scope.
The same holds for repair work. The evaluation identifies what is wrong and what the structure needs; carrying out the repair is a contractor’s work, performed from the engineer’s recommendation and, where the repair is structural, from stamped drawings.
Wisconsin Conditions That Act on Foundations
Foundations in this part of the state are worked on by the weather and the ground in ways that a building in a milder climate never experiences.
Freeze and thaw is the main one. Water in the soil beside a foundation wall expands when it freezes and pushes against that wall, then releases when it thaws, and the cycle repeats through the winter and again in spring. A wall that was only slightly out of plumb at the start of a winter can be measurably further over by spring. The same cycling works on the concrete itself wherever water has found its way into a crack.
The soils matter just as much. Much of northeast Wisconsin sits on clay, which swells as it takes on water and shrinks as it dries. A building partly on clay and partly on something firmer tends to move unevenly, which is where stair-step cracking and sloping floors come from. Lake-effect precipitation off Lake Michigan and a high water table during spring melt both add water to that cycle, and poor drainage at the building concentrates it in the worst possible place.
Drainage is the one part of this an owner can usually act on. Downspouts discharging at the base of a wall, grade that falls toward the building instead of away from it, and a window well with nowhere to drain all put water where it does the most work. None of that fixes a wall that has already moved, but it reduces the chance of the same thing happening again after a repair.
What You Receive Afterward
The deliverable is a written report. It sets out what was observed, what those observations indicate, whether anything is actively moving, and what is recommended. That recommendation can be no action, continued monitoring, a drainage correction, or structural repair with drawings and calculations to carry it out. Where repair design is called for, the drawings carry the engineer’s Wisconsin seal, which is what a building department generally asks for before issuing a permit.
A report can also be written for an audience beyond the owner. If the question is what caused damage rather than only what condition the building is in now, that is forensic engineering work, and the report is prepared with that use in mind. Our firm investigates damage from natural disasters including wind, snow, rain and flooding, freeze and thaw damage, impact, and overload, and provides insurance claim support. Our article on hiring your own structural engineer for an insurance claim covers how that works from a building owner’s side. Our firm is not a claims adjuster, and coverage decisions stay with the insurer and the owner.
When to Call Without Waiting
Most foundation questions can wait for an appointment. A few cannot. If a wall is visibly moving, if there is audible cracking, if a floor has dropped, or if a foundation wall has rotated or collapsed inward, leave the building and call 911 or the fire department. Those are the situations where the structure may not be carrying what it is supposed to be carrying, and the first priority is people rather than documentation.
Short of that, do not excavate against a leaning wall, do not add fill or load beside a foundation that is already moving, and do not enter a crawlspace where framing is visibly distressed. Removing soil from one side of a wall that is already under pressure from the other side changes the loading on it in a way that is difficult to predict from the surface.
Foundation Inspections in Green Bay and Manitowoc
Curva Consultants evaluates foundations for houses, apartment and condominium buildings, commercial and retail buildings, agricultural facilities and local government buildings throughout northeast Wisconsin. If you are weighing whether what you are seeing is worth an engineer’s time, a conversation about what you have noticed is usually enough to tell. Call 866-455-0155 or use the contact page, and see our services for the full range of structural work. For what a site visit looks like more generally, see structural engineer inspections in Green Bay and Manitowoc.
Service areas include Manitowoc, Downtown Green Bay, Green Bay East, De Pere, Ashwaubenon, Allouez, Howard, Suamico, the Appleton area and the Sheboygan area.