Subsidence can be defined simply as the downward movement or sinking of a building's foundations into the ground beneath it. This downward shifting occurs when the supporting soil or earth beneath a structure loses its structural integrity, compresses, shrinks, or is washed away, causing the building above to settle unevenly. Unlike normal, uniform settling—which happens gently as a brand-new building settles into the earth shortly after construction—subsidence is uneven, ongoing, and places abnormal mechanical stress on the structure's framework, resulting in characteristic diagonal cracking, distorted door frames, and compromised load-bearing walls.
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