New-York tribune., 1921-06-26
BY Harlow Lewis
flf Ticker c Lemis


1--WE bear great deal of talk about
,s.s,ement cracks in connection with
.sesnsly completed houses. Such So
s,t,,a settlement cracks are usually
a.ear,ied as a sign OF dishonest. or at
-. incompetent work on the part
.be builder. Excessive cracking In
sn;shed surfaces or materials may
ssry easily be attributed to improper
,ss.rkmanship or lack of care, and the
Is;iaer may very justly be held re-
saansible for such condition, but it
safe to say that in the great ma
s.Y;tvs of cases. where settlement is
s.s,,nfained of, il IS not case of set
ssssasnt at all, but of an entirely diff
ssrsnt matter for which no one can
~ beId responsible and which should
= seceoted as condition which must
ss,ss and which must be expected as
.svs OF the operation of building a
,ksuse.
~ When Cracks Come
ssttlsment occurs when the building
nsrt of il sinks bodily a Certain
r%s.s1cs into the ground. With proper
s.rraation work this can happen only
ssssen the soil on which the building
sssts is overloaded by the weight of
~ building. 1t might occur through
~ failure of weak foundations, but
,ssr4sinly. in the case of the ordinary
sgelling house and ordinarily COM
sstent builder this possibility is so
ssmose as to be dismissed entirely.
i certain small amount of real settle
.s.snt frequently occurs with q house
srhirh ia built on earth, due to the COM
netting of the soil under the weight of
tbe house. But the amount of such
settlement is very, very small. and it IS
unlikely to produce any cracks If 1T
does occur by reason of the fact that it
iHfll occur uniformly over the entire
area of the foundations.
- Unavoidable in New Houses
..yn most cases where cracks occur in
nav houses they are due to shrinkage,
ad not to settlement. Now, shrinkage
& as natural property of structural
materials as any other. There is prac-
scally no material which goes into the
sonstruction of a house which will not
swell and shrink under varying condi-
inns. This is true even of a concrete
teIlsr wall or floor. and is especially
tue Of the timber which makes up
tha great bulk of the structural mem
hers Of the house floors, roofs, walls
ind partitions. Under such conditions
ais readily seen that shrinkage, and
great deal of it, is bound to happen
III any newly built house, and as re-
isals cracks are bound to develop. A
.sewly finished house is not in con-
aiition of equilibrium. There are in
sgnitssimsi movements going on all
s7er it in the structural members of
ixhich it is built, and these move
fmenIs continue until the house finally
settles down to a condition of ap-
woximate equilibrium after 10 has
seasoned itself. Then, and not until
then will cracks cease to open up, and
then, and not before, should the tnai
patching of the house be done.
The question may be asked as to
whether the seasoning and kiln-drying
of the lumber which is used in house
construction is not supposed to coun-
ssraet such shrinkage. The comm erclal
seasoning Of lumber is probably just
sbout as well done to-day as it ever
has been done, and if lumber could be
saken direct from the kiln and built
into place in the house q great deal
ef shrinkage could be obviated, but not
all Of it. There still would be the
moisture developed by the building
E operations themselves to get into the
pores of the wood and cause swelling.
II takes water, and a good deal of 1t,
to build cellar walls, lay bricks and
sidewalks and mix plaster. A new
building is always wet building. And