As the giant Atlas was the one who carried the weight of the world on his shoulders in Greek mythology, the house foundation carries all of the weight of your home. At the same time, it has the function of distributing weight along the foundation. Simply said, this is what keeps a house in one place. This is why it is essential for the owner to take good care of it. However, this can be tricky because the majority of the foundation is located under the ground. The best way to see if something is wrong with it is to go in the basement. You need to move all of the furniture and items in order to see them. Having these kinds of issues can have an impact on several elements of the house.
The first one is that the house foundation is damaged and it needs to be repaired. Having it repaired requires a serious investment on your behalf. The second one is that these cracks that are appearing could damage the worth of your home if you are looking to sell it on the market. If you are in need of professional help for repairing damaged house foundation, you can visit Pinnacle Foundation Repair. However, some people are in favor of doing some repairs themselves. Sadly, there is not much you can do without the help of a professional. But there is something you can do. Therefore, we’ve decided to compile a list of ways you can fix house foundation problems.
1. Investigate the Source of the Issue
Finding the source of cracks that appear in the foundation is impossible without hiring the professional. This is a highly complex thing to find out and requires a certain level of knowledge in various fields. Therefore, it is impossible to find what is exactly the problem without it. By hiring a professional, who will conduct a thorough investigation, you will be able to locate the problem. At the same time, you can be sure that he or she will provide you with some solutions. Even though they will charge you for their service, this is something that you cannot do without.
2. Dig Around the Foundation
When you notice cracks in your basement or on the rear sides of your home, you should start digging at that location. That way you will see what is exactly the problem. The hole should span even slightly below the final signs of sinking or cracks. In case your basement is pretty deep, then you should excavate all of the items and furniture from it, and dig in the basement itself. If you are the type of person who tends to do these kinds of things his own way and you have some knowledge about operating with machinery, you can even rent some equipment and perform your own DIY.
3. Lift the Whole Foundation
In some cases where you can’t reach the source of the cracks, you can lift the whole foundation of the house by applying hydraulic jacks. This is not as hard as it sounds believe us. You can just place these and you can slowly lift the foundation of your home and place it into the original position. You should add concrete cylinders to replace hydraulic jacks after you’ve replaced them. That way you are going to allow the foundation itself to be on a position that will not cause new issues.
4. Back Fill
After you’ve lifted the foundation of the house, you can leave it visible for some time. That way you will make sure that it stays in a proper location and a precise level. After you’ve made sure that the foundation is at an acceptable level, and you made sure that the concrete you have inserted will hold the whole foundation, you should fill the holes with soil that you’ve dug up in the first place, and turn it into the situation before the fixing was started in the first place.
5. Bringing Extra Soil
One of the things that you should check out is the soil grade located around the foundation. Sometimes it can happen that the soil grade is not as good as it should be. In this case, you should bring an additional amount of soil and create a slope away from the foundation itself. At the same time, you can relocate the flowerbeds if needed. The main issue for the soil problems around the foundation is water. It can do severe damage if the owner doesn’t pay enough attention.
6. Concrete Pilings
In some cases where the damage is more severe, you can even run some cables into the bottom of the hole you’ve dug up and insert some concrete pilings. The recommended amount of these cables is seven. After you’ve placed all of these cables into the proper location, you can fill the holes up with some concrete. This is one of the most effective ways to fix cracks in your home’s foundation and prevent further damage.
7. Crack Fixing
One of the easiest ways to fix foundation cracks is by applying cement into the cracks. Even though filling the cracks with the patching cement is not going to provide you with long-term benefits, it will surely help you to prolong the problem for a short amount of time. That way you are going to have more time to think about the options you are going to choose for fixing the problem as of the whole. You should use cement and insert it into the cracks until they are completely full. After that, you should use a trowel to smooth the area.
Bottom Line
Cracks or any other type of foundation issues can provide some serious headaches to the owner. This is why it is essential to locate them as soon as possible and apply some fixing measures. As we said at the beginning of this article of ours, hiring a professional is essential in this case. However, if you are the type of person who likes to do things his own way, we’ve provided you with several things that you can do to fix house foundation problems. We hope that you’ve found our article helpful and that it’s going to influence some of your future decisions.
