Why Is My Concrete Cracking and Sinking?

If you have noticed spreading cracks and depressions in concrete floors and surfaces in and around your home, there are many potential factors that could be at play. Identifying the precise causes of these issues can be tricky because there is often more than one cause at work. Extreme weather, soil saturation, soil dehydration, erosion, and even underground water sources can all influence the health of your home. 

• Soil-Related Issues 

When it comes to a damaged foundation or flooring within a property, the most likely cause is in the soil beneath your home. This can extend to issues of heaving and sinking in your driveway, too. The most common issues are dehydration, saturation, and erosion. While each of these situations are different, they all have the same results; a lack of support which causes concrete flooring or foundations to sink or crack. 

Soil dehydration and saturation are two sides of the same coin. If you have poor moisture management in the soil around your home, it will become saturated during rainstorms and incredibly dehydrated during droughts. This will lead to poor support for your property as saturated soil can cause subsidence while dehydrated soil will shrink and crack, leaving large gaps for concrete flooring, paving, or foundation to sink into. Erosion, by contrast, occurs when the soil has nothing to keep it in place; it can be washed away by rain or blown away when too dry. This is very easy to spot, thankfully. 

• Extreme Weather and Natural Phenomena 

Extreme weather conditions are most likely to damage your property foundation by altering the soil under it. Heavy storms,  or water runoff can easily cause flooding, for example. Likewise, extreme droughts can lead to soil dehydration and erosion. The only real exception to this is a severe tornado, which can damage your property from the top down. 

Finally, a natural phenomenon or disaster like an earthquake could cause sinking, heaving, or cracking in your property foundation or in structures surrounding your home. Thankfully, occurrences like this are not overly common in Minnesota, North Dakota, and eastern Montana. Nonetheless, when they do happen, they can be very damaging.