The short answer
The signs Texas inspectors are told to look for are doors that bind or won’t latch, cracked drywall, cracked or separating exterior walls, sloping floors, racked door and window frames, and gaps at trim and frieze boards. No single one of them proves the foundation moved. In the ASCE Geo-Institute homeowner guide’s shorthand, more indicators = higher probability, weighing how many signs you see, how often, and where in the house. The Foundation Performance Association adds a caution in the other direction: not all distress is foundation movement.
The signs, and what else they can be
| What you see | What it can mean | Could also be | How soon to act |
|---|---|---|---|
| doors that bind or don't latch | The frame has racked as part of the house dropped or rose | Humidity, loose hinges, a door that was trimmed badly | Inspect if several doors in one area are affected |
| cracks above doors or windows, running diagonally from the corners | The wall is being pulled out of square | Drywall tape or seams cracking as the house dries | Mark and date; inspect if they widen |
| diagonal (stair-stepping) cracks in brick | One end of the wall has dropped relative to the other | Mortar shrinkage, if hairline and not growing | Inspect, especially near a corner |
| sloping floors | Settlement or heave under part of the floor | Uneven framing in an older house; a slab poured out of level | Get an elevation survey |
| frieze board separations | The wall below has dropped away from the roofline | Wood trim shrinking or nails backing out | Inspect if the gap is growing |
| walls separating from ceilings or floors | Interior walls moving relative to the floor or roof | Truss uplift in winter, or baseboards pulling loose | Inspect if paired with other signs |
| Cracks in a concrete floor 1/16 inches across or wider | Slab movement | Normal curing shrinkage if narrower and flat | Mark, date and measure |
| racked door and window frames | Movement strong enough to distort openings | Windows installed out of square | Inspect |
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Inside, outside and underneath
Inside the house
- Doors that drag, swing open on their own, or have uneven gaps at the top.
- Cracks fanning out from door and window corners, or across ceilings.
- Tile cracking in a line across a room.
- Floors that slope toward one wall, or a marble that rolls the same way every time.
Outside
- Stair-step cracks in brick, especially near corners.
- Gaps between brick and window frames, or at the frieze board under the eaves.
- Soil pulling away from the slab in summer, leaving a gap you can put a finger in.
- Water standing against the house after rain, or downspouts that empty right at the slab.
Under a pier and beam house
- Shims that have slipped or crushed, piers that lean, pads sitting in mud.
- Sagging beams, damp or rotting wood, a musty smell.
- Water standing in the crawl space after a storm.
Reading a crack
- Width. Hairline cracks are common. Cracks you can fit a coin edge into, or that are wider at one end than the other, say more.
- Direction. Diagonal cracks from door corners and stair-step cracks in brick point to one part of the wall moving down or up. A vertical crack of even width the full height of a brick wall is often thermal movement, one of the lookalikes the Foundation Performance Association describes.
- Offset. If one side of a floor or wall crack sits higher than the other, the slab has moved, not just cracked.
- Change. The best evidence is a crack that grows. Mark its ends in pencil with the date, photograph it with a ruler, and check monthly.
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The Austin seasonal pattern
Austin clay shrinks hard in summer heat. Camp Mabry recorded 80 days of triple-digit heat in 2023 alone, and in late July 2022 drought covered 97% of Texas, according to the Texas Water Development Board. During spells like those, the perimeter of a slab dries faster than the middle, and cracks open along the edges.
After soaking rain the clay swells again, and many of those cracks close. That’s why the same house can look worrying in September and fine in April. A crack that opens and closes with the seasons may be the house riding the clay, which better watering can calm. A crack that opens each summer and doesn’t fully close each spring is the one to watch. Trees play a part too: ASCE Texas notes that trees or large shrubs near a foundation may cause soil shrinkage under the foundation.
Check it yourself
- Pick every crack you’re worried about, mark both ends with a pencil and write the date.
- Photograph each one with a ruler or coin in the frame.
- Note which doors stick and when.
- Repeat monthly for a few months, and once after a big rain.
- Look outside after rain: where does water stand, and where do downspouts empty?
Don’t crawl under a house with standing water or exposed wiring, and don’t dig near the slab without calling 811 for utility locates.
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Contractor or engineer first?
| Call a foundation contractor first if | Hire an engineer first if |
|---|---|
| The signs are clear and getting worse | You’re buying or selling and need an independent opinion |
| You want a diagnosis and a price | Two contractors disagree about what’s wrong |
| Doors have stopped working or a crack keeps widening | You want to know whether repair is needed at all |
The inspection page explains what each visit includes, and the engineer guide covers when an independent evaluation is worth the cost.