What to expect after home foundation repairs

Home Foundation Repairs: For thousands of years, humans have taken residence in structures made from stone blocks, adobe, animal skins, and other building materials. However, none of them match the quality of modern homes.

The houses developed nations’ residents live in today are heated and cooled with central air systems, feature walls lined with countless resealable windows, sturdy roofs with gutters to safely divert excess water, toilets and sinks with running water, and tons of other modern features that make living life loads easier and more rewarding than ever before.

One of the most important areas of modern homes is the foundation. Without solid foundations, homes slip, slide, and deteriorate over time. They become especially susceptible to wind, flood, and earthquake damage. Foundation problems can also cause water leaks, energy efficiency, and hosts of other problems.

Home Foundation Repair Isn’t Always Easy, But It’s Sometimes Necessary

As homes rest and rely on their foundations, structures without solid structures will ultimately collapse. However, in most cases, foundation-related problems often result from the ground beneath homes in question, rather than homes themselves.

Home foundation problems are not easy to repair. Contractors generally have one of two options to fix bad foundations: piering and slabjacking.

Piering or Steel Piers Repair involves drilling long, sturdy, steel rods into then ground, in turn raising concrete slabs that homes in question are situated on. Slabjacking consists of pumping grout underneath uneven concrete slabs, effectively leveling them out. Such issues can also be replaced by injecting large volumes of high-density foam underneath problem areas, though the former two methods are most common.

Wait – What Happens After Home Foundation Repair Is Completed?

If you found out about a foundation problem, given you knew how serious it was, you’ve probably already hired contractors to eliminate the problem. But what can homeowners expect after foundation work is completed?

Keep in mind that you may experience none of the following problems. Conversely, you could experience all of them. Either way, there’s no means of finding out if your home experiences any of the following issues without thoroughly inspecting it on a weekly basis.

Most changes appear just days after house foundation repair, if not sooner. However, because Mother Nature is impossible to predict, expect to keep an eye peeled for at least one full month.

Your Home’s Drywall May Crack, Break, Or Chip

Drywall is the most visible building material in a majority of modern homes. If your interior walls are flat with a smooth texture, you can bet that most, if not all, of your home, is covered inside with drywall.

Also called sheetrock, wallboard, and plasterboard, drywall consists of the mineral gypsum, typically wedged between two rugged pieces of paper. While the paper is flexible, gypsum is a soft material and is known to crack under pressure.

Don’t panic if you notice drywall cracks or chips after foundation repair!

Such movement almost always indicates the home is in its proper position. So why didn’t it crack while soil underneath your home’s foundation disheveled its levelness?

It’s safe to say that, because gypsum is so soft and malleable when molded over time, the drywall slowly conformed to your home’s incorrect, unleveled, warped form.

If you’ve waited at least a month – preferably a minimum of 6 weeks – it’s time to repair any broken drywall. Fortunately, doing so is an easy, affordable fix.

Home Foundation Repairs: Tiles And Paneled Flooring May Do The Same

Although fine tile can be beautiful, ceramic and porcelain are both brittle. Following house foundation repair, tiles could crack right down the middle.

However, it’s most common to find chipped or jagged edges on tiles after stabilizing your home. If you or the previous owner saved spare materials from construction or remodeling jobs, you’re in luck – simply replace what’s broken.

In the event you can’t locate spare flooring materials, take pictures and reach out to local building supply and home improvement stores. Chances are, they’ll match it right up.

Home Foundation Repairs: Doors Might Not Close Like They’re Supposed To

Doors are an integral part of modern homes. Without them, animals and bugs would reign freely in our family living areas, energy bills would spike through the roof, and – well – we’d be forced to hop in and out through windows like NASCAR drivers.

Before you scheduled home foundation repair, do you remember if your doors functioned appropriately? In most cases, probably not.

If foundation repair does, in fact, seems to be the culprit for door misalignment, it’s possible to sand off trouble areas through manual sanding, shaving slices off by using a router, or rehanging the door in question.

Make sure to wait a month or two before making repairs. A major symptom of foundation repair is a gradual reset to resting position, potentially rendering premature repairs useless.

Cracks, Crevices, Holes, And Gaps In Exterior Walls – Uh Oh!

While repairs to drywall can wait, it’s important to immediately repair any gaps in exterior walls as soon as you notice them.

Failing to promptly repair these issues can jack up utility bills through reducing HVAC efficiency, invite opportunistic animals and bugs into your home, and allow water to seep into your home, resulting in water stains – even worse – more foundation problems.

Soil in Dallas, Forth Worth, and San Antonio often expands and contracts through the four seasons. Not sure what to do after completing home foundation repairs? Look no further than G.L. Hunt Foundation and Structural Repair.