October 24, 2010 By

5 Tips for Foundation Inspection

Hidden foundation problems can cost a home buyer thousands of dollars.  Here are 5 tips for prospective home buyers.

1.  Hire a registered professional engineer for a thorough evaluation if the initial home inspection report says “some evidence of foundation movement”.

2.  Prior foundation repair is no guarantee that all of the foundation problems have been solved.  Sometimes an engineer and foundation repair company are hired to repair a specific portion of the foundation, and to disregard problems in other areas of the house.

3.  If you see any signs of foundation problems, hire a professional engineer for a thorough evaluation.

4.  Be wary of any professional engineers’ report or inspector’s report that says “some evidence of foundation movement…typical of homes in the area”.   Get another thorough engineering evaluation, including foundation elevations. This is known in the industry as a Class B inspection.  A Class A foundation inspection report does not have the detail of a Class B report.

5.  Foundation problems may cause other problems such as roof leaks and plumbing breaks.  Get a professional estimate of the total costs of fixing collateral damage.

For prospective home buyers, Granite Foundation Repair charges a modest inspection fee.  Granite provides free foundation evaluations for home owners.

The cost of a foundation inspection is well worth it since it can potentially save you thousands of dollars in the future. If you are looking at a home to purchase, make sure you have the foundation inspected if you see any common signs of foundation problems. Cracks in the brick, cracks near corners of the home, cracks around windows and cracks in concrete around the home are all commons signs of foundation problems.

As a home buyer, it is easy to get caught up in the purchase of a new home, but it is important to make sure you have everything evaluated and inspected so that your new home doesn’t end up costing you more in the future.

At Granite Foundation Repair we provide FREE foundation inspections for homeowners and charge a small fee for foundation inspections on potential purchases.

Filed Under: Foundation Repair Information Tagged With: , , , , ,
September 28, 2009 By

Cracks in my outside brick wall.

Brick and mortar cracks in DallasCracks in a brick wall are an early sign of a foundation problem. Have your cracks and the  foundation looked at by a foundation repair specialist.

When a concrete slab bends, or curves downward along a brick wall, that brick wall will eventually break.

When a break or crack follows the mortar line, the damage from foundation failure is easily repaired with mortar touch up. When stress causes brick to fracture, bricks must be replaced.  Brick replacement may cost $100-$200 per linear foot.

Addendum: recently a reader who repairs foundations wrote in that most cracks can be closed with foundation underpinning.  In a lot of cases this is true.  But to raise customer expectations when it is not a sure thing is disingenuous. 

At Granite Foundation Repair, we advise our customers that cracks may close.  To say otherwise, to say that they will,  is promising the moon in order to close the sale.  We have seen brick cracks close almost completely on one side of a house, while cracks barely close up on another side of the same house.   This is why we always recommend that  foundation underpinning be performed early.   When a customer postpones foundation repair, it is not always possible to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.  

So if you think that you have a foundation problem, you can minimize your foundation repair cost by nipping the problem in the bud.   Cracks in mortar can be easily repaired/touched up.  And as we said earlier, cracks in brick are quite costly.

Filed Under: Foundation Repair Information Tagged With: , , ,
September 27, 2009 By

Why is wooden trim separating at the top corner of my brick wall? Foundation is concrete slab.


Trim Separation

Trim separation suggests a foundation problem

Here is a photo of trim separation.  This problem was not caused by poor carpentry.

Corner trim separation is a tell-tale sign of a  foundation problem.

As the concrete slab drops on an outside  corner, the brick veneer walls in that area remain somewhat perpendicular to the slab, while the trim remains affixed to the roof system.  The result is that the brick veneer pushes outward on the trim.

One trick for hiding the foundation problem is to caulk and paint the trim.   A thick caulk joint at what should have been a perfectly aligned carpentry corner is a dead give-away of a foundation problem.

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September 20, 2009 By

Why can’t I lock my door?

The strike plate is the part of the lock that attaches to the door frame. The latch goes through the strike plate to form the secure lock or positive closure to the door.  When the latch is misaligned with the strike plate the door will not lock.

When the latch is misaligned with the strike plate, either the hinges are loose, or the door frame is warped.

Use a carpenter’s square to check the inside of the door frame.  If it is out of square, there may be a foundation problem.   Give the guys at Granite Foundation Repair a call for a no cost evaluation to the home owner.

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September 20, 2009 By

Why are there cracks in my concrete slab foundation?

Three reasons for cracks in a concrete slab foundation:

  1. Stress at an outside corner can cause a wedge shaped corner to crack.  This is not a problem.
  2. Surface cracks may have occurred as the cement was curing. This is not a problem.
  3. The crack could be indicative of a foundation problem.  You will need to call a foundation repair company such as Granite for a foundation evaluation.   Such inspections are usually free to the property owner when performed by a foundation repair company.
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September 11, 2009 By

Why do I have a bump in the middle of my floor?

A bump that appears over time in a concrete slab floor is called foundation upheaval.

The cause is most likely a plumbing leak.  When water seeps into our expansive clay soil, it expands.  The soil in many areas of Dallas and Fort Worth will expand by as much as three to eight inches. This expansion exerts a tremendous force on the concrete floor, and can create a bump or mound.

The leak may be in either a freshwater or sewer line.

Before you say.. but I don’t have any plumbing in that part of the house.. consider two scenarios.

  1. Water has drained from another part of the plumbing system. Water can follow a path of soft soil that was created during construction.   This commonly occurs when a design change occurs during construction, that re-routes either plumbing or a concrete beam.  They dig a new hole and loosely fill the old hole.
  2. Plumbing is normally layed out to feed from a central point to the various places of water usage.  Two bathrooms in opposite ends of the house will be connected to the sewer line in a Y connection with feeder pipe to save pipe and construction costs.  The leak may be in a feeder pipe.

A bump in the middle of a floor is seldom in itself a foundation problem.  The water leak can lead to major foundation problems when left alone.  If left alone, it will eventually undermine the soil supporting your foundation.

So if you have a bump in the concrete slab, call a plumber today.

Filed Under: Foundation Maintenance, Foundation Repair Information Tagged With: , , ,