The worst parts about owning a home are the parts you can’t control. For example, how the changing of the seasons can affect your home’s foundation – which we all know is one of the most important parts of a home! But how exactly do season changes affect your home and how can you prevent and solve the issues?
The Issue
Since we are all feeling the teeth chattering, bone-chilling effects of winter, we’ll focus on how the freezing and thawing of the ground affects our homes. With moisture in the ground when entering into the colder months of the year, the moisture acts like water in a lake. When the water freezes, the water level of a lake rises due to the ice forming. This is because water expands when it freezes. Now, when the ground begins to freeze, the moisture expands like the water freezing on a lake – which means that any man-made structure, i.e. a home’s foundation, is going to feel the effects.
Prevention:
The extent of the effects from the ground freezing heavily depend on how much moisture is in the ground when it freezes. These effects are most often foundation damage in forms of cracking and bowing. But, there’s good news – you can do preventative care for your foundation!
We recommend the installment of a Carbon Fiber® Wall Reinforcing System. This system utilizes the same technology they use on bridges and skyscrapers, which means it’s strong, so strong that the U.S. Dept. of Defense uses the same strapping technique to stabilize bomb shelters! Luckily for you, it’s an affordable and easy to install.
Solution:
For those who missed the prevention step and now have bowing and cracking walls, we can still help. Some homeowners choose to replace their entire foundation when it begins to crack – don’t do that. Replacing a foundation will drain you wallet, not to mention it doesn’t solve the actual problem at hand. Instead, stabilize and repair from the interior of your home.
One method of repair is through Wall Anchors. These anchors are designed to pull a bowing wall back into place and is a permanent solution to a bowing wall.
The second method is through the use of a IntelliBrace
Wall System. This system is 100% installed on the interior of your home and will also permanently stabilize your foundation.
If you find yourself with foundation damage or wanting to prevent foundation damage in spite of the winter months, contact us for a free, no obligation estimate. 1-320-566-1200 or online by filling out this form.
