I have a house built in n. central florida. This house was completed in may of 06. The builder used a slab (stem wall-no basement). I have tile throughout most of the house. In the family room (tiled) we just noticed a thin crack that starts at the floor by the rear wall, it has cracket through the middle of two tiles then took a left for 6 inches through some grout and cracked two more tiles horiontaly. The crack appears to be thin but still appears to be on the move.Is this normal? Te only other areas I can see any cracks are very small and in the garage. So far none of the other tile (cross my fingers) has cracked in any other areas of the house. This house has 3664 feet under the roof and NO gutters, which I pleaded with the builder to put in-he says they are not needed...This house was on the higher end of expense for this area. Am I the sucker-do I have any worries associated with this? I have NO experience building; any help would be great...thanks

First, I do not believe the presence or absence of gutters has anything to do with the cracks. Here in the northeast where I practice, I consider gutters to be nearly a necessity. Others believe differently. There may be reasons peculiar to Florida which justify omitting gutters, so I cannot comment further on that issue.

Now for the cracking...there are a few questions:
1. Is the house one story or two stories?
2. Is the house essentially a simple rectangle, or does it have one or more "ells"?
3. When did you first notice the cracks?
4. Is your floor a typical slab on ground, or is it a post-tensioned slab?
5. What are the basic dimensions of the house (length and width)?

With answers to those questions, possibly more questions will arise, or possible we can refine our guesses as to the cause and cure.

Mr. Hetzel;
The only reason I mentioned the gutters is because on another site-they called the problems with the gutter "hydrostatic pressure;which they said could cause cracks. This was not a posting site, just one with articles. 1. The house is one story. 2. The house is pretty much, a huge rectangle-I have a small covered entryway as well as a as a covered lanai (slab attached to the main slab) approximately 08x12. 3. The cracks in the garage have been there for at least 10 months, without expansion. The crack in the gameroom we just noticed last week.4. It is a typical slab, I can'ty find ANY builders here that use the post tension method-it's driving me nuts. 5. I have to get back to you on length and width- it is a total of 3664 under the roof. Thanks so much; Mike

Well, 3600 square feet could be, say, 30 feet by 120 feet. that is an enormous slab to be built without control joints, if there are none. If we assume there are no control joints, it is quite likely there will be shrinkage cracks, and that's probably what you have. It would be good to know exactly where in that rectangle the crack is. Is the garage slab continuous with the house slab, or separate?

If it's a shrinkage crack, it will not continue getting wider forever. Sooner or later it will stop. Do you have extra tiles that match the ones that are cracked? If not, maybe try to get some now, before they're discontinued, so you can patch the floor later. You'll have to chip out the broken tiles, maybe fill the crack with cement, and then set new tiles over the crack. Give it a few more months before you do that.

I believe the garage slab is continous with the house slab. I will try to get more specific information about control joints this week. The crack in the game room would almost be dead center of the width of the house. The builder and company that put down the floor are going to rip the tile up, look to see what kind of damage it looks like and the flooring people say they wiil wait it out if it looks like the crack is still on the move. I have to say, I am frustrated because I can't seem to find any builders around here that will use more modern techniques. (post tensioning, something other than block construction) Do you have any suggestions when it comes to finding builders that use better and more modern, efficient building techniques. Once again I appreciate your help and input.

Find builders for what? Your house is already built. If the whole house/garage slab is one piece, and the crack is almost dead center, that points pretty stongly to a shrinkage crack, because that's exactly where one would expect it to be. If there were a control joint, you would know it...it would be a half-inch break in the slab with a black compressible joint filler in it, or else a galvanized steel tongue-and-groove assembly cast into the concrete. And hopefully no one would run a finish like tile right across it, without some sort of control joint in the finish also.

If it's a shrinkage crack, the rate of movement will slow continuously, until it essentially stops. Usually a year is enough time for such things to show up. Once your tiles are removed, you'll see what you're dealing with, but if it is a shrinkage crack, it's just a matter of waiting for a while, and then you should not have any more trouble with it.

Thank you very,very much for your input and information. This is the first house that I've ever had built and I'm a new yorker for 35 of my 37 years. This is all very new to me and I was getting very concerned that perhaps I had a lemon. You have put me at ease, We are contemplating having another house built and selling this one. Simply because now that we have done this once (we bought a model home from the builder) we can see areas where we would like things a little different, more room for some areas and less room for others. That is why I am also looking for a builder who may know more modern techniques and options. But again thank you because it sounds as if we could stay here without any of the worries I have expressed.