Monday Motivation: Don't Settle for a Settling Foundation

Foundation problems are some of the easiest home problems to ignore. You can’t overlook a flooded basement or avoid a constant musty smell coming from your crawl space, but a little slope to your floor? That’s nothing. Or at least, it’s certainly not a priority.

Foundation problems usually start small. There’s that aforementioned slope, which you only really notice because your rolling desk chair won’t stay put. Maybe you have to hip check your front door to get it to latch or put a little muscle into opening your bedroom window, but it’s an old house and that’s just part of the deal, right? It’s a quirk, a sign of character.

That crack above the back door just needs a little spackle and paint. And then in a month a little more spackle and paint. And in three months, and six, and…

These all seem like simple inconveniences, just part of the life of a homeowner, but they’re actually signs of a much bigger problem. Foundation sinking and settling isn’t something to ignore, because inconvenient turns to dangerous very quickly.

To explain foundation settling, we need to start from square one and explain foundations. A standard house-with-basement begins far beneath the earth with a footer and then a concrete slab. This slab is what the foundation (i.e. basement) walls are built on, then the house, and so on and so forth. But sometimes the soil beneath the footer shifts; maybe it has a high concentration of clay or sand, or maybe water is washing it away. Regardless of what causes it, when the soil shifts it leaves a deficit below the footer that leads to sinking and settling. If the soil shift magically leaves a one inch deficit below the entire footer, you might be ok; but more often than not, just one corner or one side of the foundation sinks. As the footer sinks, so does the affected wall, and a chain reaction travels up the side of the house until suddenly your windows and doors are sticking and your house is going downhill. Literally.

If ignored, foundation sinking can lead to a myriad of problems, including wall failure and an inhabitable house. But it isn’t an unfixable problem. We can shift the weight of the house from the unstable soil to helical or push piers, which are drilled to a depth that will provide stability and prevent further shifting, and potentially lift the home to its original position. Our pier systems are custom-designed to the needs of your home and the characteristics of your soil to ensure stabilization and can be installed with minimal disruption to your home.

If you’ve noticed sticking doors or sloping floors, it’s time to stop ignoring what’s happening underneath your house. Stop dealing with the little inconveniences that come with a settling home, and ensure your home and your family’s future safety and comfort.