General Maintenance Tips For Your Amarillo Home’s Foundation
Your Foundation Can Be Rocked By Swelling Soil And Seasonal Changes. Learn The Facts So You Can Protect Your Amarillo Home.
Your foundation is what the rest of your home is built upon. That means if your foundation is unstable, your house is unstable.
Fortunately, there are little things you can do to help properly maintain your foundation, especially if you know about the soil, vegetation, and seasonal changes in your area.
Soil And Your Home’s Foundation
Here in the Amarillo area, our clay soil is apt to take on water as the soil becomes saturated. This can cause your soil to swell, which can shift your foundation and cause major damage. You can and should take preventative measures to save yourself the headache of dealing with a shifted or sunken foundation.
When it comes to preventing soil swelling, the EcSS 3000 soil stabilization solution is the best, as it is both permanent and highly effective. It changes the charge of the clay particles, so they don’t absorb as much water. This stops the swelling from occurring, which can prevent a LOT of potential damage. It’s also eco-friendly and won’t harm your grass or other vegetation.
Gardens, Grass, And Landscaping
Of course, other factors affect your foundation, besides just the ionic charge of your clay particles. A lot of it has to do with what is planted in your yard, where it is planted, and the overall landscape of your property.
The grading of your yard, for instance, is hugely important to preventing water from accumulating around your foundation. Water collecting in and around your foundation will lead to swelling and upheaval. Make sure your yard slopes down, away from your home. This moves the water away from your foundation instead of towards it.
When it comes to planting trees, shrubbery, and gardens, be mindful of where you plant them. We recommend planting as far away from your foundation as possible. The roots of these plants can extract large amounts of moisture from your soil, which can sink your foundation.
If you have no choice but to plant close to your foundation, as is often the case, you can take certain precautions to help prevent your foundation from sinking. Root guards are one method that redirects the plants’ roots so they don’t come too close to your foundation.
Seasonal Changes
It is no secret that homes can be affected by shifts in the weather caused by the changing seasons. Your foundation is no exception.
Your foundation is affected more by the precipitation than it is by the temperature, though. In rainy seasons, your soil can become oversaturated, causing your soil to swell and push up around or underneath your foundation.
On the other hand, during extremely dry seasons, your soil can lose volume, causing your foundation to sink. To make matters worse, the swelling and sinking caused by these seasonal changes are going to cause cracks in your foundation and potentially ruin the alignment of your doors and windows.
Conclusion
While there may not be any way to mitigate the effects of weather and soil completely, there is a lot you can do to minimize harm to your foundation. Having the EcSS 3000 soil stabilization treatment is a HUGE factor in determining the degree to which your soil will swell when it gets wet.
Having your yard properly graded, so water isn’t flowing towards your home is also a MAJOR factor in preventing harm to your foundation.
Finally, the best way to ensure you keep your foundation protected from upheaval and become sunken is to be mindful of everything in and around your home. If your windows and doors are sticking, or if you see horizontal cracks, call us for an inspection sooner rather than later.
We are happy to perform a free 27-Point Analysis to get to the bottom of your foundation problems.