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WHERE SHOULD I LOOK FOR CRACKS THAT MIGHT CAUSE PROBLEMS?

Here are six places where you’ll want to stop a crack before it starts trouble:

  1. Your wood front door. Unless you clean, sand and refinish your door every year, it’s bound to dry out and warp or crack. Apply a protective urethane-based finish every spring. But the same finish that can keep your door looking cared for can cause it to crack. When paint seeps into the cracks between the door’s panels and the surrounding rails and stiles and then dries, it can prevent the panels from moving when temperature fluctuations cause the wood to shrink and swell. When that happens, the wood will crack. It’s possible to replace cracked panels, but it’s not easy. You might find yourself filling the cracks again every year instead. Another option: Replace the wood door with a wood lookalike fiberglass door.
  2. Any hole, gap, crack or opening on the outside of your house. Culprits: cracks around exterior light fixtures, outdoor taps; exhaust vents and fans; electrical outlets. Hot outdoor air can find its way inside your house through those openings, and your expensive air-conditioned air can leak out through the same gaps. The biggest gaps often are around windows and doors. You can tell if yours are leaking by lighting a match and holding it near the window or door. If the flame flickers, look for leaks and seal them with caulk.
  3. Tile floors. Chances are, a cracked tile floor is covering up a cracked concrete floor underneath. To solve the problem, remove all of the cracked tiles plus an additional row all around them. Clean the concrete floor to expose the crack that was underneath the tile. Apply a floating bitumen membrane (usually six to eight inches wide) over the crack to serves as a cushion and shock absorber between the tile and the crack. Then lay replacement tiles over a spread of thin-set mastic.
  4. Fascia board.  If you apply good paint to bad wood, that paint isn’t going to make it through a year. Inspect your fascia board before painting. Fascia board is the flat piece of wood right below the edge of the roof. If you have gutters, they’re attached to the fascia board, which is one of the first parts of a house to get wet and damaged. If you see rot or mold, replace the fascia board before you paint. Protect it with an elastomeric compound, which creates a flexible, water-resistant film over the wood. Then apply a double coat of acrylic paint—not elastomeric paint. Tip: Apply the compound to the front and edge of the fascia board, but not to the back side. Moisture needs a path to escape.
  5. Stucco. After an unusually wet winter like we just had, the paint on your exterior stucco might have worn thin, which means it’s not protecting the surface as well as it should. Inspect every inch of your home’s exterior, as even small cracks in stucco can let water penetrate the siding and cause rot or mold to start on the hidden wood frame. Once you find the cracks, you can use elastomeric caulk—not paint–to fill them. The caulk has great elasticity, so it will move with cracks if they widen, and it will help prevent water from seeping through the cracks. Painting an entire wall with elastomeric paint, on the other hand, could make your problem worse because it’s so watertight that it prevents the walls from “breathing” and can trap water behind the walls. After you caulk, touch up the paint using a 100 percent acrylic paint.
  6. Bricks and mortar. Simple cracks that follow the pattern of the block underneath are normal, but cracks that cut straight through the blocks can signal a serious issue. Same goes for deep crevices in your stucco, or for substantial, diagonal cracks in interior or exterior walls at the corners of doors and windows. Large cracks like these can reveal that your home’s foundation is “settling” or “heaving” because the soil underneath has gotten wet. Prevent the problem from getting worse by moving sprinklers away from the house; fixing plumbing leaks; installing gutters; and consulting with a foundation expert to learn how bad the problem already is.

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