Repairing Foundation: Who Needs It and Why

It is obviously a must for you to repair your house after a certain period as your house guarantees you yours and your family member’s shelter and protection. Your house is your asset and it’s your duty to take full care of it. Actually the foundation or groundwork of your house is the most important fact as it keeps your house strong and healthy. You can compare it with your body system and the foundation of your house works just like the bones of your body. If your bones are strong then you can stand still. 

Don’t Thinkabout the Cost Too Much

Do not think twice spending money on repairing foundation of your house. Before the concretes or walls of your house start fracturing by soil pressure or other reasons you start repairing it to keep your protection stronger. 

Many Foundation Repair Companies in Ottawa Can Lend You a Hand

Probably you avoid looking over the matters of checking the foundation problems of your house. But, it should be counted as a serious problem when they are visible. Otherwise, mildews can grow there or cracks or fractures can be seen in bricks, concretes or in other parts of your house. In that situation you should take the suggestions of the experts and to do this there are many foundation repair companies in Ottawa. You can call on them or visit their websites or talk to them while facing problems regarding repairing of the foundation of your home.

Structural Damage Is Really a Problem Which Can Bring Wrinkles in Your Face

Yes, damaged structures can destroy your place if they are ignored. Small cracks in the foundation can create much more problems later. So, you should call on theprofessionals in order to refurbish them by pertaining apposite techniques. 

This kind of damagecan be soil correlated; because repairing foundation is mostly needed if you build your house on expansive soils. Damage and movement is very usual there. These kinds of soils include mineral deposits that soak up water which can damage you house’s foundation and structure intensely. Then, it is obvious that you cannot handle all these alone. To repair your house’s structural damage, you must need a soil engineer or experts. They will also ensure you with the guarantee of a certain time.

Whenever you feel that there might be a foundation problem or structural damagein your house, don’t be late. Check for the problems as cracked sheetrock or cracks in your house’s concrete or stones or bricks on the outer side. And if you find out the problematic areas, don’t let the molds attack it and don’t think about the cost and go for experts as your protection depends on your decision of repairing your house’s foundation.

Learn About Retaining Walls

Who doesn’t want to have a fine-looking building facade without the worry of erosion? Ever wondered how to make it as beautiful doing erosion control? Many would think this as a difficult task to achieve especially with sloping grounds. However, this is made possible by the beautiful option of using materials like bricks for retaining walls.

A traditional and inexpensive way of erosion control is by the use of plants. Planting a lot of trees or surrounding the entire yard with greens and vegetations minimizes the risk for soil erosion. However, in most hilly areas, this method is inadequate in holding the ground together. The best method for erosion control nowadays is opting for retaining walls installation.

Retainingwalls are intentionally built to hold back soil that has the tendency to move downwards. It can be built using different materials depending on what is available. It can be made from concrete, wood, timber, rocks, interlocking blocks or bricks. 

Various Options

While still serving its purpose, a retaining wall can be decorative, as well.  You can choose to use solid wall blocks that is perfect if you plan to have contoured and curved designs.  It is intended to make installation easy especially to amateurs. It also comes in different colors so you can choose the color that suits you. There are also randomly shaped wall faces with varying looks that create a more modern and unique look. Retaining walls that utilize these materials may appear to have different looks at different angles and at different times of the day. Another option is the use of cultured stones, which creates that natural look of an original stone but having various colors. More choices are available if you opt to have retaining walls using stackstone, bolderstone, and sandstone. 

Regardless of the type of material you use, among the first thing to consider is whether or not you have enough materials needed for the area you want to cover. If the materials are at hand, you can start to mark the area to which you will build the wall.  After that, you are set to do some digging.  Work out a 300mm by 300mm dimension trench.  Place steel mesh into it and some concrete.  After that, you put the towel for bricks as well as the first layer of bricks.  The gap between bricks should be about 50mm.  Now that you’ve started it, the rest will just follow.  Just continue until you reach your target height. Make sure, though, that the back of the wall is waterproof so that you can make sure that the brick will not accumulate any moisture in the future.  Perhaps you can make use of some sealant to ensure that. Also, see to it that you secure a building permit when you intend to do high retaining walls especially when the purpose is for erosion control.  Depending on the area, there are instances when the government regulates wall height to avoid wall collapses that may be a risk to many.

Foundation Repair - How to Make Sure You Don't Get Ripped Off

Foundation is one of the greatest things considered in any building or structure.  In fact, in anything, may be a building or a relationship, a strong and sturdy foundation will help keep it together. However, in reality, even the strongest and sturdiest foundation has its’ own unique limitations. There will always come a time when these things are tested and you are left with two options - either you entirely take down the old, crumbling building and build a new one or just do foundation repair.

Firm Foundation

Taking down the entire structure then making a new foundation is a good option.  However, the sentimental value of the old structure, for instance the foundation of your ancestral house, is far more valuable than anything else in this world. If that’s the case, the best option is to go for a foundation repair.

The cost involved in foundation repair might be a little pricy.  However, you can always canvas and check for the company that could offer you protection against further structural damage while providing that service at an affordable price.   Foundation repair may be around $10,000 and so you have to make sure that it is worth it.  Before you choose, you can first ask for a quotation, that way you can estimate the expenses thus keeping track of your budget.

It is also best to call a professional team for foundation repair because they usually have warranties for their work.  On the average, companies offer a 10 year warranty and has insurance accompanied with it.

When to call for a repair?

When you’ve noticed bowing walls, cracked floor, sunken concrete foundations, it is definitely time to seek the help of professionals.  Delaying foundation repair may be very dangerous as it may lead to further structural damage, cracked and bowing walls. More than anything else, safety should be considered at all times.  Skilled professionals know what to do because they have handled similar problems before.  Further delaying the repair may just worsen the problem and may even become more costly. 

Methods involved

There are two ways to do foundation repair. The first is through piering. In piering, additional vertical posts are installed and connected to the horizontal posts to act as supports.  The supports add stability to the structure. The other one, which is slabjacking is a method of injecting a grout mixture to the slaps to fill the gap. The gap causes the sinking and through epoxy injection or urethane injection, the gap will be minimized, preventing further sinking. The grout mixture is slowly injected to fill the space underneath that slap. 

To avoid problems with foundation, it is recommended that a builder must first put in sand and gravel to the area.  This then should be compacted properly.  Proper compacting eliminates air voids and spaces, which is the cause for concrete sinking.