Ignor­ing Water Prob­lems Risks Struc­tur­al Foun­da­tion Damage

Nov 1, 2012 • By Matthew Stock with Barry Schilling.

Struc­tur­al foun­da­tion dam­age to your home is seri­ous busi­ness. At best, it’s a pain in the neck – stuck doors, tilt­ing floors and jammed win­dows. At worst, it’s real­ly bad – open cracks in the above-ground struc­ture, chim­neys sep­a­rat­ing from the house and addi­tions sink­ing.

It’s true that most, if not all, of these things are repairable but struc­tur­al foun­da­tion repair and the repair of the above-ground dam­age it caus­es are nei­ther inex­pen­sive nor con­ve­nient. Most struc­tur­al foun­da­tion repairs can be avoid­ed, though, if you just take some sim­ple pre­ven­ta­tive steps.

Most Struc­tur­al Foun­da­tion Dam­age is Caused by Water

When you see the signs of struc­tur­al foun­da­tion dam­age, the cul­prit is usu­al­ly water: 

If the soil out­side the foun­da­tion becomes over-sat­u­rat­ed, it can swell and put tremen­dous pres­sure on foun­da­tion walls. This caus­es bulging and bow­ing in con­crete block con­struc­tion and crack­ing and tip­ping in poured con­crete foun­da­tions. Either may cause the foun­da­tion to sep­a­rate from the above-ground struc­ture, com­pro­mis­ing the sta­bil­i­ty of the home.

When the sur­round­ing soil has all the mois­ture removed from it, a process called des­ic­ca­tion, the soil around and under the foun­da­tion will shrink, caus­ing the foun­da­tion to sink or col­lapse, usu­al­ly at the out­er cor­ners. Such des­ic­ca­tion typ­i­cal­ly occurs dur­ing droughts, when unwise­ly placed trees and shrubs draw mois­ture from much deep­er soil than nor­mal in order to survive.

Smart Water Man­age­ment can Pre­vent Struc­tur­al Foun­da­tion Damage

So, how you can you keep these things from hap­pen­ing? It’s sim­pler than you might expect – man­age the water around your home!

Prop­er Grad­ing – If the top of your foun­da­tion is buried under soil and/​or the slope of your lawn is grad­ed toward the house instead of away from it, you’re ask­ing for trou­ble. Dur­ing heavy rains, water will run toward your house and sat­u­rate the soil around your foun­da­tion and seep into the base­ment over the top of the foun­da­tion. Regrad­ing may be a big job but it’s far bet­ter than deal­ing lat­er with a bro­ken foundation.

Clean Gut­ters – Yep, some­thing as sim­ple as clogged rain gut­ters can lead to struc­tur­al foun­da­tion dam­age. Backed-up gut­ters will allow rain water to spill from the roof and soak into the soil right against the foun­da­tion. Reg­u­lar main­te­nance will keep them clean and flowing.

Down­spout Exten­sions – Once your gut­ters are clean, take a look at your down­spouts. Where do they dis­charge? If it’s right next to the house, the clean­est gut­ters in the world won’t pre­vent over-sat­u­rat­ing the soil next to the foun­da­tion. Down­spouts should be extend­ed at least 10 feet away from the foun­da­tion to car­ry the water past the zone of dan­ger. Under­ground down­spout exten­sions are pre­ferred for appear­ance and eas­i­er lawn and land­scape maintenance.

Land­scap­ing Design – In this summer’s drought, many home­own­ers dis­cov­ered that those trees that shade the house and the shrubs that look so nice under their win­dows have caused their foun­da­tions to sink. Keep major plant­i­ngs away from your foun­da­tion to avoid des­ic­cat­ing the soil around it the next time rain­fall gets scarce. An added advan­tage – it will help keep roots out of sew­er lines and drain tile.

Most of these are main­te­nance issues and pay­ing atten­tion to them now can help you avoid major prob­lems lat­er. At U.S. Water­proof­ing, we can repair your struc­tur­al foun­da­tion dam­age but we’d rather help you pre­vent it through prop­er water man­age­ment. You’ll rest eas­i­er once our experts have explained it dur­ing a free con­sul­ta­tion.

Tags: yard drainage, overflowing rain gutters, foundation damage, structural foundation damage

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