New construction home, loose foundation anchor nuts

anchorfoundationnew-home

I am going around caulking behind the insulation due to drafts. Part of basement sits above ground, as house is built on slope. Many of the nuts on these foundation anchors are loose. I have been tightening them with a socket wrench until firmly but not over doing it.

First are these supposed to be loose? The house is 2yrs old. Did they forget to tighten these or did they come loose as the house settles. Some were sitting halfway up the stem.

How tight should they be?

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Best Answer

Yes, they’re suppose to be tight. I suspect they forgot to tighten. I’d hand tighten, plus about a quarter turn.

The anchor bolts and nuts do two things: 1) keep the house from sliding (moving horizontally), and 2) keeping the house from lifting up (moving vertically.

I can tell where you live, you don’t have high winds nor do you live in a high seismic area. Where I live we use 3” square and 1/8” thick washers for those anchor bolts and they are 24” oc. The sole plate would pull through the anchor bolts with those small washers.