Cracks in foundation

[dmg]

I have a colonial modular house on a 48X27 foot foundation. The house is approximately 3 1/2 years old. I noticed some small cracks in our foundation when we purchased it, but the home inspector wasn't alarmed by them. It is a poured concrete basement. Two of the cracks are on the front of the houses basement and start at the lower inside corner of the basement window and travel downward. One is about 1 foot from the floor, the other is about 3 feet from the floor. Both cracks are larger at the top and taper to nothing at the bottom and are no larger then dime width. There is no moisture around the cracks ever. In the rear of the house I have another crack that again starts from the inside corner of the window and travels downward to within four feet from the floor with some slight dampness at the end of the crack. It also is no wider then a dime at the top and tapers. On the other window in the back of the basement I have a crack that travels downward from the middle of the window about 2 feet and then splits right and left about 2 feet in both directions. (upside down T) This also has some slight dampness on the crack. Lastly I have a crack on the back wall that starts from the top of the wall between the two windows and travels down ward about three feet and splits to the right and left but more like an upside down Y. This also has some slight dampness where it splits. We have never had any water leakage even in some very heavy rainstorms (5-6 inches) just constant dampness and a white stain on the wall around two of the cracks. The drainage is excellent but the house was built on rock and shale. We live in the Northeast and we have a lot of shale. The house was back filled with dirt after they blasted out the shale and rock. The cracks do go through to the outside. There are no cracks in our basement floor. The builder did cut it into 4 sections. I also noticed 4 hairline cracks on the short wall on the garage side, but they only extend down about two feet and are extremely thin. I noticed all of the cracks getting slightly larger in size the first year we moved in, but minimal at best the last two years. I patched the cracks with a concrete mortar from a caulking gun. Do you think we have a major problem or did the foundation just settle? Should I do anything else? We are selling our house and I don't want there to be a problem for inspection.

[TJ1962]

Actually most of what you describe is drying and shrinkage cracks, especially by window openings. They will move thermally because they are acting as control joints. If cracks are a concern, crack injection can be done at minimal cost and should cause no problems with resale.

[marina21]

I think drying shrinkage cracking is inevitable. Therefore, contraction (control) joints are placed in concrete to predetermine the location of drying shrinkage cracks.