Foundation anxiety feeds on vagueness: a crack you sort of remember, a door that maybe got worse. The cure is a 20 minute quarterly walk around with a phone camera, a tape measure, and this list. Dated records turn every future question into a comparison, and in a town where clay moves houses seasonally on purpose, knowing whether something is growing or merely breathing is most of the diagnostic battle.
How to run it
Do the walk four times a year, roughly January, April, July, and October, so your log captures both the swollen and the shrunken ends of the local soil cycle. Follow the same route in the same direction every time, because consistency is what makes quarter over quarter comparison honest. Photograph everything you note with something in frame for scale, a coin or the tape itself, and keep it all in one dated album. Write measurements down; memory rounds numbers in whichever direction worry prefers.
Outside: the masonry, the water, the ground
The exterior circuit reads three things: what the brick and trim say about movement, where water goes, and what the soil is doing at the slab edge.
Exterior walk around
- Walk the full perimeter in the same direction every quarter, starting at the front door.
- Scan brick and stone for stair step cracks along mortar joints, and photograph each with a coin in frame for scale.
- Measure any crack wider than 1/8 inch, and write the width and date next to the photo in your log.
- Check every downspout: discharge should land 3 to 5 feet from the slab, on ground that slopes away.
- Look for gaps where soil has pulled back from the slab edge; an opening you can slide fingers into means the clay is drying hard.
- Confirm beds and soil slope away from the house on all sides; pour a bucket of water anywhere you are unsure and watch where it goes.
- Sight down each exterior wall from the corners, looking for bowing, leaning, or a frieze board separating at the top.
- Check exterior door and window trim for corner gaps, especially on the south and west sides.
- Note new offsets where the driveway, sidewalks, or patio meet the house; a step that was not there last quarter is data.
- On pier and beam homes, probe skirting, porch posts, and any wood near grade for softness.
- Log any tree trunk within about 15 feet of the foundation, and note which walls sit in its root zone.
- After the next hard rain, repeat the circuit and mark where water stands for more than a few hours.
Inside: the house is the instrument
Doors, floors, and drywall register movement before anything else you can see. Inside, you are logging behavior, not just damage.
Interior door and crack log
- Open and close every door and window in the house, and log each one that sticks, latches poorly, or swings on its own.
- Study the gap around each problem door; a reveal wider at one top corner than the other is worth a photo.
- Photograph drywall cracks at the corners of door and window openings before anyone repaints over them.
- Measure and date any interior crack wider than 1/8 inch, noting whether it runs diagonal, vertical, or horizontal.
- Check tile floors and grout for cracks that run in a line across multiple tiles.
- Set a golf ball on hard flooring in a few rooms and note where it rolls; repeat from the same spots each quarter.
- Inspect where cabinets, countertops, and crown molding meet walls and ceilings for new separation.
- Look for cracking above the fireplace and anywhere brick shows inside the house.
- Scan ceiling corners inside closets; movement often shows first where nobody patches or repaints.
- Walk barefoot and note any slope or dip you can feel, then mark the spot on a simple floor sketch.
- Before filing the quarter's photos, compare them against last quarter's set and flag anything that changed.
Reading your own log
One sticking door in August is Georgetown behaving normally. Combinations are what earn a phone call: a door that quits latching plus new stair step cracks on the same wall, or any measured crack that widens across two consecutive checks. Our warning signs guide ranks the full severity ladder. When the log says escalate, escalate to someone neutral. A professional evaluation with an elevation survey converts your photos into elevations, and an engineer has no piers to sell you.
Between quarterly walks, the seasonal maintenance checklist covers the watering and drainage habits that keep this list boring, which is the goal.
Georgetown Foundation Guide editorial team
Independent research for Georgetown homeowners. Cost figures come from published industry data and are estimates, not quotes. Updated July 15, 2026.