Home Improvement

This comment does not constitute professional advice and whatever else I have to say that clearly indicates this is not my professional opinion.

These cracks appear structural in nature.

They do need to be repaired and probably by someone who can rule out other factors. Mostly I'm concerned about the large aperture crack between the blocks at the top as a source of water infiltration and maybe even pests but that's not my purview.

You probably don't need a structural engineer but a foundation repair company should take a look at it.

~~If you DIY it I would document the cracks really well and check on them regularly.~~ I don't really recommend DIY due to the large aperture crack up top. Were I there in person I would look at the penetration of it (how deep does the crack go?) to determine more. If it penetrates deeply, again, I would recommend having someone look at it.

That being said are you on a hill of any kind? Did these cracks appear the same day as the earthquake or after? The larger one looks older. Do you have other cracks in the foundation? Sticky doors or windows? If you're on a hill at all I would reach out to a geotechnical firm as these cracks, if they're not directly earthquake related, could be indicators of slope instability.

Also are you in a floodplain? Old filled in estuary? There could have been significant settlement during the earthquake that may need to be addressed.

Homeowner's insurance, in my experience, will not fix earthquake damage. If you live in an earthquake prone area I recommend you purchase a separate earthquake policy. Ours is about $40/month.

Edit to add: this probably isn't time sensitive. I'm not advocating you run and stay in a hotel. But the crack with missing mortar isn't a good thing and you should have it checked out.