How can you tell if your house is settling or sinking? What can be done about it?

Settling is the slow, even drop a house makes in its first years, and it usually stops on its own. Sinking is when one part of the foundation keeps dropping into the soil under it and does not stop. The fast way to tell them apart: settling cracks are small and stay put, while sinking shows up as doors that stick worse over time, floors that slope toward one corner, and cracks that keep widening. Real foundation repair in New England runs from a small crack injection at $1,000 to $3,000 up to helical piers at $2,700 per pier for the first three, then $2,200 per pier after that when a footing has lost its soil.

How to read your own house

Walk it slow. Settling is normal in a young house, so don’t panic over a hairline crack in the basement wall. Most houses settle a little.

Here is what tells us a wall or footing is still moving:

• A crack that is wider at the top than the bottom, or one you can fit a coin into.
• A diagonal crack running off the corner of a window or a door.
• Floors that slope. Set a marble down and watch it roll.
• Doors and windows that used to close fine and now stick or swing open.
• Gaps where the trim pulls away from the wall or ceiling.
• A basement wall bowing inward.

One small vertical crack on its own is often just settling, and we’ll tell you that to your face. You don’t need it fixed yet. Mark it with a pencil line and a date. If it grows in a few months, call us.

Why one corner sinks in New Hampshire

The soil right against your foundation is disturbed backfill, the loose dirt the builder pushed back in after the foundation went up. It drains slow and holds water. When it stays wet and then freezes, NH frost heave pushes on the wall and the footing settles unevenly. That is why sinking so often shows up at one corner and not the whole house.

What can be done about it

It depends on what is actually moving, and we don’t know that until we look. Our inspection and estimate are both free.

If a poured wall has a stable crack that only leaks, we inject it with epoxy or polyurethane, sealed for good. Crack injection starts at $1,000 to $3,000 and carries a 10-year warranty.

If a wall is bowing but the footing is fine, we stabilize the wall instead of replacing it. Carbon-fiber straps at $850 each hold a wall that has moved a little, with a 25-year warranty. A power brace at $1,300 per brace handles a wall that needs more muscle. For a sagging beam or a bouncy floor, a lally column or floor support at $1,300 to $2,500 takes the load, warrantied 10 years.

When the footing itself has lost its soil and the structure is dropping, the fix goes deeper. Helical piers screw down past the bad backfill to firm ground and carry the house on solid bearing. Helical piers start at $2,700 per pier for the first three, then $2,200 per pier after that and come with a 25-year engineered warranty. We self-perform the structural lifting and the helical installs in-house, so the crew on your job is our crew.

Some jobs we price only after we see them: a full foundation-wall rebuild, wall anchors, and steel I-beams. And if you’re asking about a brand-new foundation or new construction, that is not us. We repair foundations, we don’t pour new ones.

One thing we’ll steer you away from: digging out the outside of the foundation to “waterproof” it. In our field experience that fix fails in about two to three years as the soil settles again. If water is the real problem, the durable fix is interior drainage. See /basement-waterproofing/.

When it is the structure, not just a crack

A leaking crack is a waterproofing job. A moving wall or a dropping footing is a structural job. People mix the two all the time. If you aren’t sure, that is exactly what the free inspection is for.

Your homeowners policy almost never covers gradual foundation settling, since insurers treat it as wear and maintenance rather than a sudden event. Check your own policy. The Insurance Information Institute explains what standard policies do and do not cover.

For the full menu of fixes, see /structural-and-foundation-repair/ and /foundation-repair/. Deep-set jobs live on /helical-piers/ and /supplemental-support/. Rotted sills under the framing go to /sill-replacement/. Every structural fix we do is backed by /the-603-guarantee/.

Book a free look

Get a real answer on whether it is settling or sinking. We give you a free inspection and a free estimate, with a quote within 24 hours. Call 603 Basement Solutions at 603-610-1770 or book your free inspection. Trusted by 5,000+ homeowners in New England, 4.9 stars across 250 Google reviews, BBB A+ accredited and fully insured.

Related questions

Is a crack in my foundation wall serious? Often not. A thin vertical crack that stays the same size is usually settling and only needs sealing if it leaks. A crack that widens, runs diagonally off a corner, or comes with a bowing wall is the one to watch. Crack injection starts at $1,000 to $3,000.

Will my house stop settling on its own? Normal settling usually does, in the first years after the house is built. If movement keeps going, doors keep sticking worse, or floors keep sloping more, that is not settling finishing up. That is a footing still dropping, and it needs support like helical piers at $2,700 per pier for the first three, then $2,200 per pier after that.

Do you fix the wall or replace it? We stabilize before we replace whenever the wall allows it. Carbon-fiber straps at $850 each or a power brace at $1,300 per brace hold a moved wall in place. A full wall rebuild is rare, and we price that after we see it.

How fast can you tell me what is wrong? We come look for free, then send a written estimate with a quote inside 24 hours.