It’s safe to assume that the most important part of our home is the roof. The roof protects us from harm, the sun, and any weather, but our house foundation also keeps us safe from down below. 

Your house foundation is what grounds your home and bears the weight. As time pass, you may encounter severe house damage if you don’t have a stable foundation underneath. The foundation is another aspect of your home that should be done correctly the first time because if something goes wrong, the solution is not always an easy fix. If you suspect that something’s wrong with your foundation, we’re here to help! 

Below are the common house foundation problems and ways to solve them. 

Foundation Cracks

Foundation cracks emerge in a wide range of shapes and widths. These are common in the first year of new construction, especially near corners of walls or floors, windows, and longer sections of the house foundation. The majority of them are caused by foundation settling. 

How to fix this: 

If you notice a crack on your foundation walls, observe closely and see whether they’re growing. To do this, simply use a pencil to mark off and date the ends of each crack. Vertical and diagonal fractures in your home’s foundation are usually signs of foundation settlement rather than structural damage. If you run your finger across the crack, and it appears to be even, then you may relax a little bit. Cracks like this aren’t a symptom of a more severe problem. 

Epoxy injections can be used to heal a diagonal or vertical crack. You may have a foundation problem if a crack is large enough to enter a dime. If this is the case, call in a professional and ask for repairs.

Settling or Sinking Foundation

The expanding soil cycle, also known as shrinkage and expansion, is directly dependent on water content around your property, which causes foundation settlement. This ongoing movement weakens and softens soils, and creates pockets or voids beneath your home’s foundation over time. This causes your home to sink or settle.

How to fix this:

For issues like this, it’s not wise to do the repairs yourself. It’s better to contact a reputable house foundation repair company or professional right away.

When a foundation settles, it can be repaired by hiring a company to elevate the foundation and level it out. To do so, the team will have to excavate beneath the sinking parts of your home. They then lay piers (also known as pilings) right beneath the foundation. The piers are stable because they are pushed far enough into the ground. Those piers will support the foundation of your home. While many other types of pilings can be utilized to fix a shifting foundation, pressed concrete piers and steel piers are the most common.

Foundation Heaving

Heaving occurs when moisture or snow causes the underlying soil to expand dramatically, lifting your house foundation or slab higher. 

Continuous heavy rain or snowfall can enter the soil beneath your home’s foundation if your yard does not have proper drainage. The soil underneath can then expand, causing harm to your foundation. Although soil may not appear to have much of an impact, the more moisture it stores, the more stress it can exert against your foundation.

How to fix this: 

The specialists’ first step in solving this problem is to eliminate any unwanted water from the soil underneath your foundation. Stabilizing the soil with a polymer injection is also one way we, experts, employ to fix a heaving foundation. This injection aids in the development of water resistance in the soil. If the heave damage is severe, though, your foundation may need to be drained or completely repaired. 

As soon as you detect heaving, contact your local professionals for immediate assistance and have your foundations checked.

Uneven Floors

Uneven floors are one of the most common household problems. Many encounter floors that sag and slope, resulting in an uneven surface. However, the floors are rarely the source of the issue. The walls and floors of a house can shift and bend when the foundation settles and shifts. They may even crack in more serious cases. 

A broken foundation is one of the most common reasons for uneven floors. The concerns mentioned above, as well as poor structural design and age, can cause damage to the overall structure of your home. An aging house’s foundation inevitably deteriorates over time. Beams, floors, and walls may deform as it deteriorates, resulting in more serious issues such as fractures and breaks in the floor or foundation.

How to fix this:

Experts can use a variety of techniques to repair foundations, including floor jacks and foundation piercing. To lift the foundation back to its original position, professionals will inject grout into strategically positioned holes in or beneath it. 

Some people utilize hydraulic jacks to pull the foundation back into place, then install specific footing and piers to stabilize it. Of course, this is contingent on the severity of the harm. For this type of problem, calling a professional is the number one solution. Consult a contractor or a building professional to discuss the issue and how to solve it properly.

Damaged Pier And Beam Foundations

One type of crawl space foundation is a pier and beam foundation. Crawlspace foundations are most widespread in older homes built before the 1950s in the Brazos Valley, although they are also found in other parts of the state and country. 

This foundation type is described by the distance between the home’s floor and the ground that is only large enough for a human to crawl through, hence the name crawl space.

The main culprits of crawl space foundation problems are settlement, moisture, and flaws in original construction plans or materials.

How to fix this: 

There are four options to solve this problem

Reshimming – This is the process of making tiny but more regular modifications to the snugness of all your pier and beam foundation parts. Simple reshimming can mend parts that have become a bit loose or have a bit of damage.

Rebuilding – Things happen to the inside piers from time to time. The beams may decay or disintegrate over time, or there may not be enough of them, to begin with. More piers can be added by a foundation specialist to equally support and distribute weight and straighten out bowing floors. 

Replacing – Shaker sills and floor joists can rot, shatter, or wear out, and the only solution is to replace them. If there wasn’t enough support built into the foundation, to begin with, sills or joists are required. This can demand minimal work or an overhaul and rebuilding procedure, depending on how much wood needs to be replaced. 

Adding Underpinnings – Because they are in the most vulnerable location and are frequently underbuilt and under-supported, the interior support parts of a pier and beams are frequently damaged by settling. And settling and weight distribution issues can compromise the perimeter support beam. Drilled piers or concrete pilings must be used to support settled sections if the perimeter beam needs to be restored to its original height.

Recognizing that your home or business represents a significant investment, you should take steps to maintain it and, if necessary, have it restored. So spend a few moments to see these signs and if you have any worries about your foundation or notice indicators of typical problems, call a professional immediately to have them inspect it. This will avoid the problem from growing worse and being more expensive to fix.