You Know You Need Foundation Repair If….
How To Tell If Your House Has Foundation Issues
If your home has foundation issues, the effects won’t just be seen on the foundation itself. Here are five ways to tell if a house has foundation issues.
If you recognize these problems in your home, you will need to seek out the help of an expert to find the right solution to your problems. With Childers Brothers, you will find all of your foundation repair needs in Amarillo, Texas, and the surrounding area.
1. Wall And Floor Cracks
Wall cracks caused by foundation issues can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. Vertical and diagonal cracks may be the result of a settled foundation; however, they can also be the result of your concrete walls expanding and contracting naturally.
To determine if it is a foundation issue, look for other tell-tale signs of settlement that include sticking windows or doors, cracks being wider at the top than the bottom, bowing walls, or cracks that can hold a dime.
Horizontal cracks are more likely to indicate foundation issues. What they usually mean is that moisture is causing the soil around your foundation to expand.
This causes the soil to push against the foundation wall, putting stress on your foundation. This can create serious and very costly problems.
When your foundation sinks or settles, you will end up with cracks in your basement concrete. However, concrete naturally expands and contracts, so there will also be some natural cracking.
2. Sticking Windows And Doors
While your windows and doors sticking may be a sign that they are old and need to be replaced, it’s more likely that you have some type of foundation issue.
When your foundation shifts or settles, your doors and windows move with it. This can cause sticking, jamming, separation, and cracks above your windows and doors.
3. Foundation Upheaval
When your foundation heaves, it rises up. This can cause many problems, including sticking doors, jammed windows, cracked concrete floors, cracked sheetrock walls, and cracked ceilings.
The usual culprit is the expansive clay soil. When it retains moisture, it expands and puts pressure on your foundation, causing it to heave. As the foundation shifts, your floors and walls shift with it.
4. Sagging Floors
When the support underneath the floor becomes inadequate or damaged, sagging floors can occur. This commonly occurs in homes with crawl space foundations.
They may have inadequate or unevenly spaced support due to joists, beams, and posts rotting or shifting. Sagging floors can also occur because of other types of foundation issues.
Sagging floors are a potential sign of serious and costly damage. When you notice sagging floors, look out for other symptoms of foundation trouble, including jammed windows and doors, cracks in concrete floors or walls, cracked brick outside your home, and a leaning chimney.
5. Crawl Space Issues
Crawl space issues can be caused by moisture, expansive clay soil, and poor construction. When moisture is the problem, your crawl space beams will rot.
If you have a moldy smell in your home, mold, and mildew in your crawl space, standing water in your crawl space, condensation on your ductwork, or higher utility bills, you may have moisture in your crawl space.
When expansive clay soil is the problem, it can be because the soil has expanded or because it has shrunk. When it expands, it can push on your crawl space, causing cracks, leads, and an unlevel home. When it shrinks, it can cause your crawl space to shift, which will also result in an uneven home.
If your crawl space problems are due to poor installation of your floor joists and support beams, these joists and beams may become misaligned or even break down.
Symptoms of poor crawl space construction are similar to those of expansive clay soil because they produce comparable problems. They include sloping or sagging floors, sticking windows and doors, cracks in the bricks or walls in your home, and a tilting or leaning chimney.
How to Repair Your Foundation Issues
Once you have identified your foundation issues, you will need to research the available foundation repair solutions. At Childers Brothers, we offer all the services you will need to fix your problems.
Basement Stabilization
At Childers Brothers, we will match the perfect solution to your specific situation. Our basement-stabilization solutions are proven to work.
We will make your walls stronger than they were before. Our basement solutions are a long-term solution to stabilize your walls so that they will hold their structural integrity. Along with proper excavation, our solutions will straighten your bent or bowing basement walls.
Pier And Beam Adjustment
When your crawl space has problems, we can adjust your piers and beams according to whether the foundation has settled or heaved. We will ensure each pier and beam is holding the appropriate weight load. We recommend a pier and beam adjustment every 2 to 4 years to maintain your crawl space.
Helical Piers
Helical piers are a long-term solution to repairing a sunken foundation. We use special equipment to screw our helical piers into the earth until it reaches the solid soil strata below your home. Then we attach our proprietary brackets to the foundation and lift it with a special jack.
Once the foundation is lifted to the correct position, we secure it to the brackets. This process permanently transfers the structure’s load to the stable strata.
Soil Stabilization
We are the only company in the Texas Panhandle to offer EcSS 3000, the only scientifically proven soil stabilizer. It works by changing the structure of soil molecules. The characteristics of the charged ions in the soil that attract and bind water are permanently changed, thereby reducing swell potential to 1-2%.
Call Childers Brothers Today
If you have foundation problems, don’t hesitate to call Childers Brothers today. We have all the answers for foundation repair in Amarillo, TX.
We feature a 27-Point Analysis to determine the exact solution that you need. We will only ever offer services that benefit you.