As a homeowner, you know that preventative maintenance is important for improving the longevity of appliances and other items you rely on daily. As you protect items with maintenance, don’t forget to pay attention to foundation maintenance. Without a solid foundation, your home may no longer be a safe place for your family.
Fortunately, you can take several steps to avoid foundation-sinking problems that can lead to major repair bills. Don’t ignore the warning signs of foundation issues. Deploy foundation repair services and foundation maintenance steps to keep your home healthy and sturdy.
Tips for Avoiding Foundation Sinking
When you seek maximum protection for your home’s foundational integrity, you can perform foundation maintenance steps well before you notice any problems. Preventative maintenance steps for your home’s foundation can prevent issues from ever appearing. Some of the steps you can take include:
- Look at your foundation regularly for signs of damage.
- Install a sump pump in the basement.
- Clean your gutters and downspouts regularly to ensure proper water flow.
- Inspect and correct the slope of the dirt away from the foundation to encourage natural water flow.
- Inspect your plumbing, automatic sprinklers, outdoor faucets, and other water sources near the foundation for leaks.
Watch Moisture Levels Around the Home
Although most foundation damage occurs because of excess water in the soil around the home, damage may occur if the soil is too dry, too. Excessively wet soil can push on the foundation, which may lead to cracks. Excessively dry soil may pull away from the foundation, causing it to shift outward and leading to cracks.
Take steps for proper soil drainage for foundation protection directly around the home. You can test and inspect the soil regularly to ensure appropriate moisture levels. Depending on the results, you may need to add a bit of moisture occasionally, or you may need to take steps to encourage better drainage.
Signs of Foundation Problems
If you have concerns that your foundation already has damage, you can still perform foundation maintenance work to prevent the problems from worsening. You should also call experts to visit your home and provide advice about potential repairs.
If you are still determining whether you are seeing serious problems, here are some signs of foundation issues.
- Look for cracks in the foundation’s walls that appear to be widening.
- Pay attention to any doors or windows sticking or not moving freely, as this could indicate a shift in the foundation.
- Use a bubble level to test the chimney to see if it’s leaning.
- Watch your basement walls to see if they begin bowing.
- Look for moisture leaks that appear in the basement for no easily identifiable reason.
- Closely watch the soil around the home’s foundation; if you notice a gap between the soil and the foundation, this is a sign of potential problems.
- Watch for low spots in the soil around the home where water collects, as this may indicate excess moisture in the soil around the house.
Maintaining Your Foundation the Right Way
Owning a home represents the largest investment you make in your lifetime. You need to protect that investment. When you hire concrete foundation contractors at Virginia Foundation Solutions, you can rely on us to perform steps to avoid foundation sinking.
We will thoroughly inspect your home to determine what issues could lead to dangerous foundation problems. If you need better soil drainage for foundation protection, installation of foundation repair products, or other steps, we will do the job correctly the first time.
Our professional foundation maintenance solutions give you peace of mind about the integrity of your home. Let us protect your investment with structural foundation care you can trust. Call us today at 757-340-0917 for a free expert foundation inspection.
