The Crumbling Foundation Problem affects many communities in Eastern Connecticut. Since the problem was first recognized several years ago more and more information has become available. More importantly, some help is now available to affected home owners from the State Government, the Federal Government (including the Internal Revenue Service) and some insurance companies. Your town government also may offer assistance both by providing information and by temporarily reducing your property taxes.
The sheer amount of information may at first be confusing and overwhelming. Take a deep breath and go step by step. First: learn about the problem in general: what are the causes. Second see if your house is at risk based on when it was built. Third, find as much information as you can on the construction of your home and the source of the concrete. On this last item, be aware that even though there is a specific source of concrete that is most often associated with the problem but do not panic. Not every load of concrete from that source is necessarily bad. The issue with that particular source of concrete is traced back to one of the components of concrete which came from a specific quarry in Willington. Many loads of aggregate mined in that quarry and used to make concrete contain a mineral that is the suspected culprit that causes the concrete in foundations to develop a specific type of cracks. Many other loads of aggregate from the same quarry may not contain the mineral. It depends what area of the quarry the aggregate was mined in.
Below are some links. They have a lot of useful information. Consult and digest the information incrementally so you do not get overwhelmed. You will also find that many of the information sources are cross linked so at times it may feel as if you are going in circles.
The problem is a serious one. Particularly serious for the owners of affected properties. It also affects those owners that don't have the problem because of the associated fear which may reduce demand for homes in the affected areas.
The information continues to evolve and the situation, while serious, has gotten better in the last year or so. There is financial help available. There is also a growing number of vendors that can determine whether a specific house has the problem and also a growing number of vendors that can remediate the problem. While the most common remediation involves lifting the house and replacing the foundation, additional approached are emerging which do no require lifting the house to replace the foundation. Many owners are eligible for refunds on inspections and when necessary, on financial help to remediate.
A starter set of Information and additional help Sources:
https://crcog.org/crumbling-foundations/
https://portal.ct.gov/DOH/DOH/Programs/Crumbling-Foundations
https://www.jlconline.com/how-to/foundations/crumbling-basements-blamed-on-mineral-in-aggregate_o
https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-pol-irs-crumbling-foundations-20181016-story.html
Additional information can be retrieved by doing a search in your favorite browser for some variant of crumbling foundation such as for example crumbling foundations ct.
If so inclined you can cast a broader net and search for crumbling foundations quebec and see what our northern neighbors have been doing