Parenting has a lot of elements to it. It’s not just about how you personally deal with your children specifically. It’s about making sure that your children are safe and healthy in your home as well. Maintaining your home’s safety and structural stability is an important element of parenting. If you want to make sure your home is as safe and secure as possible, you may need to consider these home foundation problem signs to avoid foundation structure concerns in the future.
8 Simple Signs Your Home Has a Foundation Problem Created By: Innovative Basement Authority
Cracks in the Walls and Floors
Cracks in your home’s walls and floors can be very damaging. However, there are definitely specific crack styles that can indicate more serious foundation problems. If you see diagonal cracks reaching out from the corners of the walls, for example, you might have much more serious foundation concerns than if you’re noticing small vertical cracks in your walls or small cracks around the floor.
Misaligned or Sticking Doors and Windows
Ideally, you want to make it so that your home’s doors and windows have an easy way to open and close. If you’re seeing problems with opening and closing your home’s doors and windows, it’s probably that the frame has warped for one reason or another. The most common reasons for warped doorframes and window frames are either foundation settling or water damage, both of which are important problems to address as soon as possible.
Gaps Between Walls, Windows, and Doors
In a healthy home, you’ll have walls, windows, and doors that match up directly with each other. However, as your home’s foundation starts to settle, you might notice gaps between the home’s walls, windows, doors, and even floors. That’s why it’s so important to tackle foundation settling problems as early as possible, because you’ll be able to avoid secondary problems like an opening for pests and water to collect.
Sagging and Slanting Floors
There are many reasons you might experience slanting and sagging floors underneath your home. For example, these problems might come from a lack of support for the floor joists. However, on the other side, they may also come from sinking on one side of the floor, but not on the other side of the floor. That can lead to a floor that seems uneven, slanting to one side. This typically indicates foundation problems on the sunken side.
A Leaning Chimney
When you have a chimney in your home, that chimney will usually have a different foundation than the rest of the home. This different foundation helps to provide the chimney with the structure it needs to maintain its integrity, which is definitely an important element of your home’s structural stability. However, the different foundations can also lead to issues if one foundation starts to sink and the other doesn’t. A leaning chimney is definitely an indication that there are problems with the foundation.
Bowing Basement Walls
It’s always a good idea to look at the basement walls whenever you enter the basement. Your basement should have stable, upright walls, just like any other room in your home. However, it’s common for the basement to run into problems with hydrostatic pressure because of the sheer pressure of the water from the soil outside the basement. If you’re noticing that the basement walls are bowing inward slightly, it’s usually because of hydrostatic pressure.
A Musty Smell Coming From the Basement or Crawl Space
The basement or crawl space should smell as healthy as the rest of the home. However, from time to time, you might hear people indicate that it’s common for the basement or crawl space to smell “musty.” This isn’t true; if the basement or crawl space smells musty, it’s usually a sign that you’re having mold and mildew problems in the basement or crawl space. Any time you notice this musty smell, it’s a good idea to talk to a repair expert early on.
Damp Walls and Water Intrusion
One of the biggest problems that you can experience in a crawl space or basement is a problem with moisture. Moisture can absolutely demolish your home’s crawl space or basement with waterlogging, standing water, high humidity, and many other problems. That’s why it’s important to notice damp walls and water intrusion as early as possible. You can tackle the problem early on and make sure you don’t have water intrusion problems in the future.
How Can You Fix Foundation Problems?
Of course, if you’re having foundation problems, you’re going to want to fix those problems. Otherwise, it’s common for those problems to just get worse and worse until they eventually cause serious damage. Fixing foundation problems isn’t always easy, but it is definitely the right thing to do. Early fixes may run around $3,500; if you leave the problems until they’re advanced, you’re probably going to have to pay $10,000 or more.
Conclusion
Keeping your family safe should start with keeping your house safe. When you have a safe and secure home, you’re much more likely to have a safe and secure family as well. That’s because your family’s safety starts with the safety of the place they live. Home stability should be an important element of keeping your family safe, which is why it’s such an important time to talk to a foundation repair expert when you notice any of these signs.
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