Foundation Repair Problems in the Des Moines Winter?

What a year! The dry soils shriveled up, pulled away from the basement foundation walls, and has allowed foundations to settle, break and bow.  In extreme cases, the walls have crumbled and fallen inward onto the basement floor.

How do you know if you have foundation problems?  There are simple ways for us to tell if we have foundation problems.  If you have a clay block wall or a concrete block wall, the easiest way is to look at the foundation.  Look for cracks in the mortar joints.  These cracks can be in a variety of different areas, but start in the corners of the basement.  There you can find stair step cracks, and they are either leading toward the basement corners or leading away. 

Another area is around the basement windows.  The window is arguably the weakest part of the basement wall.  So take a look in the corners of the window.  What you are looking for is simply cracking moving away from the window.  Then of course, there are the cracks moving the length of the wall.  This crack will find a line or a course of block, and run the length of the wall.  This one can be crafty.  It can look like a shrink crack in the mortar on one in, get worse in the middle, and then try to hide itself on the other end of the wall.  Many times the bow in a wall will come from this crack.

What if I have basement finish covering the walls?  Well, take a walk around the outside and look, or check your entire house for sticky door, and sticky widows.  This is an easy way to check for foundation settlement and movement.  Also, you can look at the corners of door jams, and windows for cracks in the drywall.

Common answers we hear are, "This year I noticed a tiny little crack that wasn't there last year." or "This crack has been here since we moved in, and now it is considerably larger."  Most likely both have occur because of the significantly dry soil for 2012 and the worst drought in 80 years.  What do I do?  Get the walls repaired?

Why repair the wall, the crack has been here ever since I moved in, or its just a little crack?  The short answer is big cracks and bows in the wall generally all started out as little cracks.  The long answer is, the soil is dry now, and is waiting to be rehydrated.  During this time wall repair, and wall straightening is best depending on exactly what signs your home is exhibiting.  Why?  Because we can get the greatest recovery out of the wall.  In addition, the soil waiting for water will eventually get it and will begin to re-expand.  These expanding soils are going push up against the walls, and will continue to cause damage to the basement foundation wall.  Repair the problem before the problem becomes a larger problem.

Can I make these repairs in the winter?  Yes, most of the repairs can be done from inside the basement.  In extreme cases, we can still work from the outside.  Now, please keep in mind, "Mother Nature" can dictate some of the agenda, but external basement foundation repairs can be done during the winter months.

If you need some one to come out and look at your basement foundation give us a call at 1-800-638-7048.