A house’s foundation is literally the only thing that keeps it standing. It’s one of the first things that is developed when a house is being built, so it needs to be as sturdy as it possibly can in order for the house that will be built on it to stay structurally secure.
Before deciding on the company to complete any repairs on the foundation, you would need to have a good comparison of prices and what work can be provided. Bringing in several companies for an estimate can help you get the best deal, as many offer free consultations in order to secure your business, and also get you more educated on how much time such repairs could take and what sort of issues the company could have when performing the repairs.
Making any repairs to a home’s foundation is tricky, as any damage can be compounded if the company assisting in repairs isn’t careful.
If your home doesn’t have a basement, your foundation is much different than traditional foundations. Houses without basements can be built on a slab of concrete, which has its own problems if the material was put down incorrectly or not dried properly. You would still need to have someone come in to give a proper assessment of any damage that the concrete incurred and what they would need to do in order to reach and repair the slab.
Foundation repairs may involve ripping up flooring in order to get to the actual foundation, which in itself is costly. Be sure that the repairs are explained to you fully before agreeing to a company’s work so that you won’t be surprised if they need to remove anything to get where they need to go.
Leaving a foundation issue to continue to affect your home can cause catastrophic damage if not handled immediately. A cracked foundation can allow the water table to overflow, eating away at the foundation over time and causing the crack to widen. That crack could allow for flooding in the home or could have the foundation buckle in on itself to cause structural damage. A cracked foundation, if severe enough, can even lead to a house being unfit to live in. The house could be destroyed and rebuilt from the ground up or just left to collapse in on itself. No matter how you look at it, it’s very important to make sure that anything that looks out of the ordinary in your foundation is handled as quickly as possible to prevent these issues from happening.
Unfortunately, unless you’re the one overseeing construction on a house, it’s hard to make sure that your foundation is laid out exactly as it should. When buying a new home, always make sure to check if there were any previous issues with the home’s foundation before or if there were any repairs completed that they were done correctly.
