Cracks in Walls, Stucco and Slabs in Phoenix: Which Ones Matter
Most cracks in a Phoenix house are normal. A few aren't. Here's how to tell, and what to do about each.
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Every house here cracks. The soil shrinks and swells, the framing dries, the slab moves a little, and the stucco and drywall split along the weakest line. Most of it is cosmetic and gets patched. A small number of cracks are the house telling you something, and those get an engineer before anyone patches them. This page is how to tell them apart.
Normal cracks
- Hairlines running up from the corners of windows and doors, inside or out
- Straight cracks along drywall seams
- A crack where the ceiling meets the wall that opens in summer and closes in winter
- Hairline cracks across a garage or patio slab with no height difference across them
- Cracks in stucco at the corners of a block wall column
These get patched with flexible material: stucco cracks outside, and drywall cracks inside, taped so they stay closed.
Cracks worth a second look
- Any crack that keeps getting wider over months. Mark the ends with a pencil and a date.
- Stair-step cracks following the mortar joints in a block wall
- Diagonal cracks wider than a coin's edge
- Cracks that show up at the same time doors and windows start sticking
- A slab crack where one side is higher than the other
- Cracks with a bulge, a soft spot or a stain next to them, which is water
For these, a structural engineer looks first. An engineer's report is a few hundred dollars and tells you whether it's movement that's finished or movement that's ongoing. Patching before that just hides the evidence.
Phoenix soil
Much of the Valley sits on clay that shrinks when dry and swells when wet. Water that soaks in next to the foundation, from a sprinkler, a downspout or a leaking hose bib, makes that corner of the house move. Keeping water away from the foundation is the cheapest crack prevention there is.
What this page covers
- Crack in the garage slab
- Crack in the patio slab
- Hairline cracks in the foundation
- Foundation crack getting wider
- House settling unevenly
- Doors and windows all sticking at once
- Large crack through the slab
- Post-tension cable end exposed or rusting
- Want a structural inspection
- Sun-faded paint on the west wall
- Should I patch drywall or replace the sheet
- Should I repaint the wall or just touch up
- How long does a drywall patch take to dry
- Can I patch drywall myself
- Ceiling drywall sagging after a leak
- Burning smell from a wall
- Crack in the drywall above the door after summer
- Crack in the ceiling corner
- Diagonal crack from a window corner
- Crack in the stucco under a window
- Crack in the grout line across the floor
- Crack in the garage floor
- Crack along the tub caulk line
- Crack in the block wall stucco
- Cracks that open in summer and close in winter
- Crack wider than a quarter inch
- Crack with one side higher than the other
- New cracks appearing all over the house
- Crack running through the foundation and up the wall
How it starts
Send a photo of the crack with something for scale, and one from a few feet back. Tell us whether it's new, whether it's growing, and whether anything else changed. Quotes are free. If it's a patch, you get a fixed price. If it needs an engineer, we'll say so.
Questions
- Is a crack over my door a foundation problem?
- Usually not. Door and window corners crack from normal settling. A crack that keeps widening or comes with sticking doors is the one to have looked at.
- Should I fill the crack in my garage slab?
- If it's a hairline with no height difference, yes, with a flexible concrete sealant. If one side is higher than the other, have it looked at.
- Who do I call for a structural engineer?
- We can arrange the visit. The report comes to you directly.
Related pages
Drywall crack repair
Settling cracks over doors, seams that split, nail pops, and the ceiling crack that comes back every summer. Fixed so they stay fixed.
Stucco crack repair
Hairlines at the window corners, the hole where the satellite dish was, the patch that doesn't match. Filled, textured by hand and blended.
Water stains and leaks
A stain on the ceiling, a soft spot by the window, a wet cabinet. Before anything gets patched, the water has to be found. Here's how we do it.
Ready to get it fixed?
Tell us what needs doing. Quotes are free. We usually reply within minutes, and always within 24 hours.