Winter is Coming: How Frost Heave Affects Your Home

Because we live in Michigan, we’ve entered that time of year where the temperature varies by dozens of degrees each day. This doesn’t just wreak havoc on your lungs, it could also be messing with your home.

Let’s go through it using Lansing as an example, if only because it’s what I (and my basement) have experienced firsthand.

Last week, it was cold. So cold that there isn’t a proper word to describe how cold it really was. So cold that my husband had to buy special outerwear to walk the puppy. As a result of the frigid temperature, the ground froze. If you’ve ever thrown a bottle of water in the freezer and forgotten about it, only to retrieve the misshapen bottle later, you know that water expands when it freezes. This happens to the water in the soil as well, which causes soil displacement as the water in it expands. This is known as frost heave.

For the past few days, it’s been a little warmer. It felt downright balmy in the sun on Sunday, though that might just be in relation to how awful it was last week. As the temperatures hover above freezing, the snow on the ground melts,as does the ice underground. This can oversaturate the soil, which means the extra water needs to go somewhere (hint: it’s going to end up in your basement).

The forecast has our highs above freezing for the next week, but the lows mostly in the 20s. That means a rapid cycle version of this process is going to be happening every day. Freeze, expand, melt, oversaturate, freeze, expand, etc. Any unfrozen water in the ground will be taking the path of least resistance, which in many cases is right through microscopic cracks in your foundation. And with all of that soil expansion and saturation cycling, your foundation walls are at risk of shifting and bowing.

The effects this process has on your home will vary depending on your water table and even the soil composition in your neighborhood - silty, sandy soil is more affected by frost heave than denser soil, for example - but no home is immune.

So what can you do?

First off, if you have water in your basement or crawl space, call us for an inspection so we can recommend the best solution. Not only is water a problem, it’s sometimes indicative of future problems with your foundation walls, so it’s best to nip it in the bud.

If you’re noticing cracks in your foundation, or even signs upstairs like tilting or sagging floors, it’s important not to put off taking care of it. It doesn’t take long for a wall to go from “slightly bowed” to “in a pile on the ground” and it’s much easier and more cost-effective to stabilize an existing wall than to build a new one from scratch.

So as the winter temperatures fluctuate, keep your home in mind. And call us.