As the weather turns warmer and the potential for another dry summer comes along, it’s time to start thinking about your foundation. During the summer, it’s easy to forget the block of concrete that keeps your house in one piece and stops it from sliding into the neighbor’s yard.
Your foundation, although an inanimate object, is really a “living, breathing” thing. As the foundation repair columbia mo does, it requires proper maintenance. As soils around your home dry or get moist, the foundation will move and shift with the earth in order to keep your house standing. If these shifts occur quickly or are too large in scope – cracks and major changes in your foundation can result in tilted floors, doors and windows that won’t open or shut, or worse…a house that splits or slides right off the foundation itself (not a pretty sight).
The best tip for foundation care.
An inspector and I were talking about the foundation of a property once and he gave my buyers the best advice I had ever heard – simple and effective. He advised that you keep your grass growing along your foundation at all times – if the area around the foundation is green, you should be safe from some of the more common foundation problems (of course this will not guarantee a life without foundation problems…but it will help).
You’ll often hear people refer to “keeping your foundation watered” during the summer months – and this is exactly what the inspector was suggesting. Letting the ground around your foundation dry up can lead to more trouble down the road, particularly if a sudden rainstorm swells the ground with moisture. Keeping the grass alive in a San Antonio summer isn’t always easy so when you keep the ground moist enough to grow your grass, it should be enough to maintain your foundation’s strength. You may contact a Soft Story Retrofit specialist to check your home’s foundation.
As always, Kimberly Howell Properties reminds you that there is no substitution for a qualified structural engineer or foundation expert when you think you might have foundation troubles. Call your real estate agent and ask for a list of qualified foundation experts or structural engineers in your area.
Image is not an actual foundation crack caused by shrinkage and is used for illustrative purposes only.
image courtesy of WayTru