How to Check Your Home for Foundation Issues

How to Check Your Home for Foundation Issues

Owning a home can be personally and financially rewarding. Your mortgage payments, unlike rent payments, go toward a valuable asset that will help you generate more wealth, and your days are spent in a property that you own and control, giving you a sense of permanence that can make a space feel more like a real home. But homeownership comes with responsibilities and risks, too, and that is nowhere more obvious than in the care and repair of your home’s foundation.

Foundation issues Are Every Homeowner’s Nightmare

The foundation is the part of your home that is set into the earth. It supports the entire structure, and it keeps the home in place as the home and the soil around it settle. Foundations keep water out of your basement space and, in some cases, surround finished basement rooms that are filled with things you value. In short, foundations are essential and crucially important.

They’re also, unfortunately, tough to fix. Foundation repair can be costly, and some foundation issues can be so great that it becomes necessary to remove and replace the entirety of the foundation. In some cases, foundation issues may even lead homeowners or buyers to tear down the entire structure and start over! Needless to say, foundation issues can drastically lower the resale value of your home. People are simply less likely to want to buy a home with foundation issues. Fortunately, foundation issues of this severity are usually preventable.

Preventing Foundation Issues and Disasters

Foundation issues are nightmares for homeowners, but not all problems with a foundation are equal. Furthermore, the smaller and more affordable foundation problems tend to worsen over time and turn into, or create, their more costly counterparts. So, for homeowners, the calculus is simple: you can keep an eye on your foundation and invest in its well-being by swiftly addressing any problems you encounter, or you can ignore your foundation and end up with potentially huge and costly problems!

Needless to say, most homeowners will want to prevent serious foundation problems by regularly inspecting their foundation and acting fast when issues arrive. Here’s how to do that.

How to Inspect for Foundation Problems and Solve Them

Inspecting your home for foundation problems means looking primarily at floors, walls, and installations like windows and doors. Look for cracks in walls and concrete floors, which could be signs of more serious problems beyond the mere settling of the house. Keep an eye out for windows and doors that don’t seem to fit as well as they once did; sticking windows and doors could be signs of problems beneath your feet. Perform a particularly thorough check of your basement, looking for cracks on the walls and floors as well as for water that may be encroaching into your space.

If you happen to spot anything that seems to be a sign of problems with your foundation, act immediately. Call up experts in concrete repair, foundation repair, basement waterproofing, and related jobs. They’ll analyze the situation and explain your options. Get any repairs completed as soon as possible, to ensure the situation can’t worsen. By doing so, you’ll fend off more serious foundation issues, giving you a better chance at enjoying a higher value for your property.