Leo

In earlier articles I provided information on how to select the rite Foundation Repair Company, and I spoke about watering issues due to rain. This article is meant to get right down to the facts about Foundation Repair.

The first fact is that the soils here are extremely plastic, they soak moisture like a sponge. Only this sponge grows and shrink up to 7 times its average mass from wet to dry. If you think about that for a minute. The soil supporting your house can expand and contract its mass size (700%) seven hundred percent.

Now to illustrate how this effects the foundation you have to imagine the terrain prior to building your home or your neighborhood for that matter. It probably was not flat and had several creeks and streams that ran through it before developers came in and subdivided it for home sites. They had to import soils to fill in low areas and dry riverbeds. They even had to level ravines and remove large trees to develop the area where you hose now sits.

All of that new fresh soil on top of the existing soils now is compacting, shifting, settling, and being eroded by rain, wind and traffic. These are a few minor reasons for differential movement. You may have foundation issues though. Foundation Issues are caused by they subsurface soil expanding and contracting, or subsequent lateral movement. Conditions that are usually latent until a drought or unusually wet year.

Over the years I have been ask if the builder is at fault for the Foundation Issues?

Yes and No This is a double edged sword. Most home builders have to construct housed with as little cost as possible to keep the wood bee home buyer from going to the next builder for a house. This act of cutting cost usually eliminates our home builders from implementing drilled monolithic piers to support the home. Such piers installed prior to construction could reduce the factors and chances of Foundation Issues. But would inflated the cost of a new home about (35%) thirty five percent. Just think if you never could afford it then you wouldnt have issues now. Just a little humor

I suggest pressed concrete piers to my customers. Even thought some other Foundation Repair companies will go with cheaper Steel Piers, or even Dead man Piers. Alternative piering methods do sometimes work, but for the same results every time I count on Pressed concrete piers. They hold better.

One final fact. Not all Foundation Repair Companies are equal. Contact the Better Business Bureau for a list of Contractors who provide a Lifetime Warranty, and Insurance. Like the American Express Card, dont lift your home without it

Travis Nech
http://www.metrofoundationrepair.com