Month: March 2021

While it is found in many areas of the United States, much of Texas is home to expansive soil. Many homes in the Dallas Fort Worth area are built on this expansive soil that is heavy with clay. While this soil seems pretty sturdy, it comes with a unique issue when it comes to foundations. When the clay is wet, it swells. When the clay is dry, it shrinks. This is why on some hot Texas summer days, you can actually see the soil pulling away from your foundation. What does this mean for your foundation?

What the swelling and shrinking of expansive soil means is that shifting is a regular occurrence. Any shifting is bad news for a foundation, which is why we try to limit it as much as possible. In the wet seasons, drainage solutions are employed to keep the soil nearest your foundation from becoming too swollen with water. However, too few consider the shrinking in summer a problem.

In truth, if you see the soil pulling away from your foundation during the dry season, it is not necessarily something you should panic about. It is, however, something you should do something about. Just like you employ drainage in the wet seasons, you should employ moisture when the soil is too dry. If you do actually see the soil pulling away, it is recommended that you water the foundation with a hose to introduce some more moisture. This helps limit the extreme shifting that can happen as the soil switches from dry to wet.

Do you have a home built on expansive soil? It may not mean you have foundation problems yet, but you do need to monitor your foundation more closely than other homeowner’s might. Contact us today to see what Steady House Foundation Repair can do to keep your home on a steady foundation.

In this age of pandemic, many people have been putting off crucial home repair tasks simply because they don’t want several strangers in their home to do those repairs. However, even before COVID-19, you may still wonder if you will have foundation contractors and work crews inside your actual home if you are having foundation repairs done.

The answer as to whether foundation repair contractors will need to come inside is not a simple answer. As you may expect, it depends on the nature of your problem. Some foundation repairs can be done completely outside your home and some of them will require crews to come inside.

The good news is that your foundation contractor of choice should fully inform you of what needs to be done as well as how it will be done. In most cases, you will find that they will actually dig under your foundation to do common repairs like installing piers to provide stability. However, in some circumstances, they may need to come inside and do installations from inside your home.

Aside from various check-ins with you, typically done at the end of the day to be transparent with the work that was done and the work that still needs to be done, usually there isn’t a lot of reason for a foundation contractor and their crew to need to be inside your home. However, you do want to be aware that if you need to have a foundation inspection done, your inspector may want to come inside to look for signs of foundation damage. Sometimes the very first signs of damage start inside your home.

Do you have a foundation issue? Unfortunately, just letting it sit will not be doing it any favors. Ignoring foundation issues just makes them more expensive to repair later. If you are having foundation problems, contact us today to see what Steady House Foundation Repair can do to help.