A Good Foundation Is A Key To Safer Home

By Lawrence Draper

With most objects and living things, there is a feature that forms the core; the driving force on which every other part of it depends. While the other features are important in coming together to form a whole, if you were to remove that driving force, everything else would cease to work properly. For a human, this would be the brain. If that were damaged, the effects would be apparent across the entire body. For a physical structure, it would be the foundation. If the foundation were damaged, the rest of the building would exhibit detrimental symptoms.

Making sure your home's foundation is up to standard and kept in good repair is vital to protecting the investment you made when you bought it. A bad foundation can cause endless headaches for a home owner. The effects can be noticed all over the house.

There are a number of clues that point to foundational issues. If your home has such a problem, you have probably noticed them. They include, but are not limited to: cracks in concrete, tile or other hard surfaces, doors or windows that do not fit properly, walls, chimneys or other structures that are cracking or lopsided, and water leakage from the walls or pipes in the basement. Any of these signs warrants an inspection as soon as possible.

The majority of foundation problems can be traced back to the soil it rests on, which can change and shift as time goes on, often due to poor compaction during construction and/or absorption of moisture. When the soil shifts, it creates voids. A foundation on top of soil full of empty spaces will not be getting the support that it needs to keep stable. And an unstable foundation causes a great deal of stress to the home built on top of it, and it will release this stress by cracking.

Once you know that there are foundational issues with your home, do not delay. The sooner you get them taken care of, the less damage it can do to the rest of the home. Foundation issues are not so much a Do-It-Yourself project, so you will probably need to hire a professional to take care of it. Just make sure they are reputable and competent. But what exactly can they do to fix it?

The most effective method of stabilizing the foundation of an existing structure is through a process called underpinning. This entails using various types of piles or piers to compensate for the weaknesses of the soil. The type of pier used for the job depends on the soil conditions and current integrity of the existing foundation. A more stable, consistent foundation takes the load off of the structure of the home, quite literally.

Do not underestimate the importance of a good foundation. A bad foundation could not only result in expensive structural damage to many areas of the home, it could create potential dangers for its occupants.

About the Author:

Finding a trustworthy contractor for things like foundation repair can be difficult. A reputation stems from one's actions in the past, and Park Range Construction, a Colorado's structural repair specialists, has built one based on unwavering dedication to quality and hard work.