Just the very word “foundation” implies how important this feature is to your home. Foundations are usually the most vital asset of anything they are applied to, from buildings to education. They are the stable groundwork, the beginning, the rock, the glue. The foundation for your home ensures stability, safety, and security. It allows your home to sit level and perfect, and keeps it that way. It can help protect your home from the perils of the ground, from groundwater moisture to changing elements due to weather. As important as a foundation is for your home, that’s how serious it is when there is a flaw in that foundation. It needs to close to perfect, if not, perfect, to do its job. It won’t do a good job with support if it’s cracked. It’s necessary to keep your foundation in top condition in order to help your home stay that way, and experts like Quality Dry Basements owner Charles Pellaton can help.
All that supporting can take a toll on foundation. It takes a lot of pressure from the weight of the home, alone. Now, you add in moisture problems, perhaps your basement is flooding, and now you’ve got hydrostatic pressure to boot. Hydrostatic pressure occurs when liquid is trapped in a substance like concrete. This sends foundation repair into two different categories: repairs that are made independently, and repairs that are made as part of a waterproofing job.
First, there is the foundation repair that must be done not as a result of any flooding or leaking. This may be damage done by faulty construction, or wear and tear over time – for older houses, the foundations may just begin to give a little after supporting all the weight of a home for so may years. But for new houses, cracks can appear as a result of a few different options. If the concrete does not dry at a proper temperature, or perhaps it was poured hastily and not as neatly as possible, the drying can actually create cracks. This can also occur when the construction of the actual house is started too quickly after the foundation has been poured, as the concrete may not be completely dry or ready to handle the weight. It can also be the way the concrete itself is mixed. Vibrating rods go into the concrete before it is poured to get rid of the air bubbles. But if this is rushed or not done completely, that concrete may be poured with the air bubbles still present – a precursor to blistering and cracking. There could also be too much water mixed into the concrete, making the concrete too weak to resist flaking and cracking.
In these cases, you can call in your basement contractor to give you an estimate for the foundation repair alone. Or, this damage may be the result of a bigger issue. Water in your basement will damage the foundation, especially if not repaired soon enough. The moisture collects in the concrete, and starts to exert hydrostatic pressure within the concrete. It is only a matter of time before the concrete will give and begin to crack. For this situation, you will want the foundation repair completed as part of the overall waterproofing job. Your basement contractors will factor in all fixes to fit under one job and one cost, and then the repairs will be made before the final process of waterproofing. Once the foundation and any other problem areas are completely restored, the contractors can waterproof the basement, and ensure those problem areas will now be safe from any moisture damage going forward.
