Pavement Crack in Approach to House

[Boiler]

We’ve noticed a three foot hairline crack in the concrete leading up to our front door. Our house is only seven months old and under warranty. The Village says the crack isn’t large enough to repair. I’ve ask the Village if they will come and repair once the crack is large enough, but outside the warranty period. Thoughts?

[retiredguy123]

Read your warranty booklet. The crack needs to exceed 1/4 inch to be covered under your one-year warranty. Hairline cracks are normal, and the chance that it will ever exceed 1/4 inch is very low. I doubt that they will repair it, if it can even be repaired.

[MarshBendLover]

All concrete cracks, that's why we cut joints. Outside of joints, it's just a failure of a pour quality (watery or dry) or failure of the sub layer, which is common on shifting or freezing ground. Hairlines are a dime a dozen. I poured my own driveway, but Not In The Village - NITV, but knew that settling of the soil and crusher would impact the concrete. Taking your time and waiting the required length of time for each layer is important. I imagine based on the speed in which they are building on sandy soil, cracks throughout the slab are extremely common and don't even see the real cracks below home flooring.

If your crack starts to exceed 5mm width, then you may need a lift eventually, but your warranty will expire before then. In the meantime, you or a repair person will squirt some sealant in there which does nothing but keep weeds from growing, since it does not freeze down here. A structural failure on a home slab is generally in excess of 25mm and you can start to see doors and windows not closing properly.

IMHO, I would say it's just a hairline, I wouldn't worry unless I saw it expanding. It will probably get slightly longer, you could mark it to see. If it goes far enough, then the weight of it starts to push down on the sub and the crack widens.