Expert: Keith Fuller - 5/17/2011

Question
I live in an area of Texas where the ground is known to shift. When my house was built, it was built on piers to prevent shifting. The builder then poured a large amount of stairs from the front door to the sidewalk. Those stairs have pulled away from the house slab and dropped. I can see down into the space between the stairs and the slab and it doesnt appear that the builder used rebar, or any other material, to try to anchor or attach the stairs to the slab. The stairs were not built on piers. Is there any building code that this violates?  Thank you.

Answer
This is a fairly common problem.  The structure, which is on a foundation, does not settle.  The stairs are not on a foundation and do settle, creating the gap you noted.

To find out if it is a code violation, you must find out what code governed the construction of the structure when it was built.  This should be noted on the occupancy certificate issued when the construction was completed. Your local Building Official can help you on this.

Foundations are now required to support structures. Sidewalks do not support structures and generally float with ground movement.  It's common in frost zones for the concrete to move with the freezing and thawing of the ground.  In addition, the area next to the structures where the foundation was backfilled is subject to settling. Many builders tie the porch and sidewalk to the structure with re-bar.

In your case, you might find that it is more of a matter of poor workmanship than a code violation, but that answer can only be obtained locally.