What to Do When a Building Foundation Needs Repair

Your home’s foundation is the key building block to your castle—so if anything goes awry with it, your entire house can suffer. This is a frustrating and major repair event, but knowing what to expect can assuage your fears. About a quarter of American homes will need foundation or structural repairs in their lifetime, so it’s best that you understand what to do when foundations need repair in Jeffersonville, IN. Forewarned is forearmed, and if you’re planning on selling your home, repairs are a necessity.

Here’s what you need to know about repairing your home’s foundation.

How you’ll know your foundation needs repair

Unless it’s obvious, like giant exterior cracks or sinking, you might not even realize that your foundation needs to be fixed. Some of the factors you can look for include cracks in the foundation, walls and floors. You might notice that you have sagging, uneven floors, water collecting in and around your crawl spaces or gaps between your doors and the floor. Some homeowners notice doors, cabinets or windows that won’t shut, and leaks or cracks around the fireplace.

These usually occur because the foundation is sinking in some way, which makes the rest of your home’s fixtures uneven. When you see these signs, it’s important that you call a foundation contractor immediately. If you don’t address it, the damage will get worse—and more expensive to address.

How foundation repairs are done in Jeffersonville, IN

Your home’s foundation is what keeps it from sinking into the ground, so when something goes awry—whether it’s too-damp soil, the ground shifting or something else entirely—it has to be shored up from underneath the home.

First, your contractors will dig tunnels underneath your home so they can get to the foundation. They’ll also lift your air conditioner pads at the same time. When the contractors can reach the foundation beams, they’ll be able to lift the foundation appropriately with pilings and hydraulic jacks. Then support cylinders can be installed to lift the home as needed.

This might require breaking into solid areas of asphalt or concrete, which are called breakouts. After the foundation is lifted, the breakouts will be filled or patched appropriately. Depending on how severe your foundation problems are, you may have to have plumbing or electrical repairs performed.

After your home’s foundation is repaired, all the tunnels and holes dug will be repaired and patched. If your driveway or pathways have been affected, those will also be repoured, patched or repaved to match the rest of your home. Finally, your landscaping will be repaired and replaced.

Your home can’t survive unaddressed foundation problems, so if you notice any of the signs above, call a foundation contractor right away. The last thing you need is an unsafe house.

For more information about what to do when your foundation needs repair in Jeffersonville, IN, or to schedule expert demolition and excavation services for your project, call the team at Estes Excavating Inc. We can help you with a number of projects, and would be happy to answer your questions when you call today.

Categorised in: Foundations

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