Foundation Repair Photo Album: Spotting the Signs of Foundation Settlment
After a home is built, the soil around and beneath the structure settles over time. This can cause the structure to sink slighlty into the soil. While this sinking is natural and nothing to worry about, sometimes the soil can compress unevenly or water can wash away sections of soil entirely. When this happens, the home is unevenly supported, which can cause minor issues like sloped floors and major issues like structural damage.
There are signs around the home that indicate that a home is settling unevenly into the ground. Inside the home, cracks in the foundation walls become visible and often expand. Upstairs, cracking can appear in the drywall around door and window frames. Those doors and windows will often become slightly jammed, making them harder to open or close. Outside the home, cracking can become visible in concrete and stair-shaped cracks appear in the mortar between bricks. Seperate structures of the home, such as porches, fireplaces or even driveways may begin to seperate from the home. Depending on the way the home settles, these structures may also appear to rise higher than their original position.
Any of these signs might indicate that the home is settling unevenly. Don't wait for the damage to become significant (and costly!), call Woods Basement Systems to learn more about the foundation support work that can be done to permanently strengthen and support your home.
Cracking Near Door Frames
When the foundation of the home begins to settle, cracks can often appear in the drywall near door frames throughout the house.
Chipped Drywall
Drywall near corners such as around doors and windows will often begin to crack or even chip off as the home settles.
Cracking and Detaching
If a home settles unevenly, seperate structures like porches will often crack and detach from the rest of the home.
Cracking Foundations
This concrete section of the foundation wall is cracking. This is often caused by either settling foundations or the pressure from expanding soils.
Cracking Near the Front Step
Cracking has begun to appear in the brick and concrete around the front step. Because this front step is not attached to the footing of the home, it will likely settle differently from the rest of the house, causing it to crack and seperate from the rest of the home.
Stair-Stepped Cracks
Cracks that resemble stairs will often appear in brickwork when the bottom of the bricks are not supported. As the foundation settles, these bricks become unsupported and will seperate from each other along the mortar lines.
