Here's a photo of damage to the front door foundation X stair-landing on my home. The door sticks at the lower corner. The doors in the inner hallway also stick (well, not all doors). There are cracks at the upper corners of these doors. I cannot photo the obvious plaster damage at the front door because the walls are covered in paneling. The hallway doors began to stick earlier than the front door, as I recall.
There is a Fruitless Mulberry outside the Western wall, within probably 25 feet of the hall doorway, 15 feet of the house. I have been informed by an arborist from a local independent nursery that this tree is likely drinking from the underground water table and as nothing grows beneath it I have not watered it in years. Moreover, I have not watered the beds at the foundation for probably 2-3 years, either (heaven knows where the azaleas therein are getting their water, other than the occasional watering I've provided).
There is another tree, a Modesto Ash, probably within 20 feet of the south-facing wall at the Eastern end of the house. The roots from this city-owned tree have risen to the surface of the ground, broken-up concrete pathway leading to the landing pictured here, broken concrete border to the bed just below the pictured damage. This bed has also had little water over the past 2-3 years, since I Round-upped the Bermuda grass. The Waxleaf Privet shrubs have just survived, but are doing ok. I have been preparing for a re-landscaping of the area, but due to slow recovery from an illness have simply been unable to do the work necessary to begin/complete it. Thus, the lack of moisture.
So . . . ideas? What am I looking at here? It will be a simple matter to achieve cosmetic repairs, simple, not easy, probably. But what about the cause of the damage? What can be done to stop it? Can it be stopped? This 60+YO lath/plaster house has undergone similar cracks to the internal plaster in years past and before I moved in 30 years ago. But this damage is obviously new and actually pretty frightening evidence of a major structural problem with the house to this 60YO single female.
So, throw it at me (ducking).
Linda
