Rain, wind, snow, and shifting soils are things your home gets exposed to year after year. This has a profound effect on its structure and integrity. Repairing or replacing a home’s foundation sounds like a burdensome process most homeowners would not want to undertake. However, a home with a bad foundation can be dangerous to you and your budget.
Luckily, there are ways to reverse the damage and stop more damage from occurring in the future. That can be done with the help of channel anchors. These can be installed on your home to help stop the negative consequences of a damaged foundation. With the help of Innovative Basement Authority, you can get the right solution for your exact problem.
Innovative Basement Authority’s channel anchors will stabilize and repair your bowing or tilting foundation walls. But how do these channel anchors work? What are the signs you should look out for when it comes to your foundation?
Understanding Channel Anchors
The channel anchor system helps stabilize and even repair damaged walls from tilting or bowing. When they are placed into the ground and attached to the foundation wall, they help fix the wall by alleviating the pressure they get from the soil surrounding the house. Over a longer period, walls may straighten out, allowing you to complete the basement to your liking.
- Technical Aspects
The channel anchor system includes galvanized steel earth anchors. These anchors will go into the ground surrounding the home at the intervals set up by foundation experts. These channel anchors are designed with excellence in mind. Because of this, they feature a trusted, long-term warranty.
- Installation Process
Most of the time, the installation process takes place over just one day. That’s because before the installation process starts, a foundation expert will come out to your home to assess your foundation. Though you may already know where the problem walls are, the expert will determine where the channel anchors will need to be installed.
Once the anchors are mapped out around your home, a set of installers dig holes where the anchor-and-rod assemblies are placed. The crew will then connect from the inside of the house to those anchor-rod-assemblies before they’re secured into the floor of your foundation. In the end, to make sure no one can see if the earth’s been moved, the crew will place the rod once the dirt is replaced into the holes.
What Are the Benefits of Channel Anchors?
Channel Anchors from Innovative Basement Authority come with many benefits to your home and its foundation walls.
- Stability
The first benefit to channel anchors is their stability. These channel anchors are designed as a permanent addition to your home, so you don’t need to worry about your foundation’s future. They will also remain in place so long as your home is standing, without the need for a complete foundation replacement.
Channel anchors are unique because they can help dramatically with bowing and tilting at the top and bottom of a wall. If you’re experiencing tilting and bowing with your foundation walls, channel anchors may be the perfect way to bring your walls back into alignment.
- Actual Repair
On top of the stability of the channel anchors, channel anchors assist with damage that’s already happened. Their design allows them to relieve the pressure that’s pushing in on the walls of the foundation, helping them straighten out. Walls that were once tilted or bowing inward may start to correct themselves, giving your home the stability it needs. Some minimal repairs may be needed, but this is far less costly than a full replacement.
- General Safety in Your Home
Bowing or tilting walls can be a hazard in your home. Likewise, doors or windows that become stuck or eventually broken can be dangerous. That’s paired with the mold or pests that can invade your home through the cracks left behind with this damage.
That’s why channel anchors are considered a measure to keep your living space even safer. By installing them, you can also safeguard against byproducts of damage. Since mold and pests can result in allergies, lung damage, and other health issues, this measure can ensure your home is a cleaner, healthier place to live in the future.
Channel Anchors Are the Solution for Many Basement Problems
Whether you have a fully finished basement or one still in progress, channel anchors are a sound solution. Not only will they stop the problem from getting worse, but they may also fix the problem so your foundation is no longer tilting or bowing.
How Do Channel Anchors Work?
As mentioned, your foundation is surrounded by a great deal of force pushing in. Channel anchors work by providing something to push back and stabilize the walls themselves. Made explicitly with tilting and bowing at the top and bottom in mind, this solution is permanent and can halt the need for a full foundation replacement.
The channel anchor system looks from the outside like a steel beam that sits against your basement wall. In reality, that beam is attached to a long steel rod that goes multiple feet into the dirt on the outside of the basement. It’s also attached to the floor of the basement, giving it two points of contact for your basement, which will make it less likely to continue to tilt or bow.
This process is minimally disruptive to the home and the lawn around it, so you don’t have to revamp your entire property’s layout or aesthetic. Since channel anchors work to strengthen the walls against pressure, you can also trust that your walls can resist other kinds of damage.
Channel Anchor Technical Features
With a year-round installation option, there’s no need to wait for the perfect time or the ideal weather. Once you realize your foundation requires repair, Innovative Basement Authority will work with you to get the job completed. The channel anchors come with a longtime warranty, so you can always feel at ease.
The installation process can be finished within one day, so as not to disrupt your life any further. A foundation expert can examine the foundation, your walls, and the damage. With this personalized assessment, the expert can then install your channel anchors in the right way for your unique issues.
Because they are a permanent fix, channel anchors don’t need upkeep or repairs. No secondary installations will be necessary, and you won’t need to worry about your budget long-term. This makes it very preferable to replacing your foundation or trying to repair the cosmetic damage that bowing or tilting walls may cause alone. Instead, channel anchors solve the root problem and safeguard against more damage in the future.
As a plus, the anchors work to stabilize the walls, which can reverse the damage of bowing or tilting. You don’t need to invest in anything more than minimal repairs, which a foundation expert can apply while they’re installing the anchors.
This process is minimally invasive, so the landscape will look untouched. The only notable difference will be the anchors themselves, which will be embedded into the holes within the ground. The inside of the basement will not need renovating or a change in layout. Instead, the entire structure will be stronger than before and life can return to normal.
All you have to do is reach out for a quote. It’s a free estimate which will give you a better idea of the scope of work.
Channel Anchor Installation
The installation process of the channel anchors is relatively straightforward. Take a look, so you can stay prepared throughout the whole experience.
- During your initial inspection, an expert will assess your foundation and determine where the anchors will best serve their purpose. After the anchors get mapped out, the installation crew will arrive to make the holes for the anchors.
- Installers will make small holes in your foundation walls that line up with the corresponding holes dug into the ground earlier.
- Anchor-and-rod assemblies get buried into the holes and then covered with dirt to hold the anchors in place, as well as to cover up the holes that hold the rod.
- Once the anchor-and-rod is in place outside, one of the installers will mount a steel channel anchor on the inside of the foundation wall.
- These anchors stay in place, since they are connected with the concrete floor of the foundation. Each is fixed into place by an installer and is bolted to the floor with a steel bracket.
- Part of the service offered by Innovative Basement Authority is taking care of each customer and their property, which means leaving it clean and free of damage. As a part of the cleanup process, all dirt goes back into the holes from where it came.
When to Use Channel Anchors
Channel anchors are a great solution anytime your foundation shows tilting or bowing signs. Channel anchors are unique in that they can help with these bowing and tilting problems, whereas other wall anchors may not be as well-suited to helping with foundation tilting. This even includes cracks running along the walls. Once you see that happen, it’s the best time to contact Innovative Basement Authority for a quote that will help you make the decision.
Just keep in mind that channel anchors only work if you have several feet of space around every side of your home. This space is needed for the anchor-and-rod assemblies to get buried into the soil at the correct distance to help the foundation’s walls. If the home doesn’t have the space available, other options can be explored with a foundation expert.
Channel Anchor
FAQs
When it comes to a foundation issue, you can usually look to the basement. Whether you’re still in the process of finishing up your basement or you finished it a while ago, it’s good to stay vigilant. Here are signs that your home may need immediate attention and the use of channel anchors.
- Wall Movement
The most obvious sign of wall movement will be cracks in the walls of your basement. These cracks will typically be pretty obvious, and you may see issues surrounding the wall cracks, like efflorescence or general moisture around the cracks. On average, the cracks will appear horizontally or in a stair-step fashion as your foundation begins to tilt or bow. In cases where your foundation walls are concrete block, the cracking will show diagonally between each block of concrete.
Along with wall damage, you’ll see your doors and windows begin to suffer. It will become difficult to open them, they’ll creak and stick, or they may even get fixed in place. These will likely be bigger problems along the outside of your home, but they can happen anywhere. Shifting walls due to an unstable foundation can translate to uneven doors and windows. This will stop them from functioning correctly. In some cases, they may even begin to break.
- Tilting and Bowing at the Top and Bottom
As soil puts pressure on the wall from the outside, it will begin to tilt inward. The tilting will be noticeable at first glance, as the wall appears to cave. The top will usually be further toward the interior than the bottom. Any sign of tilting means that the walls are taking on too much pressure from the outside. It could result in larger problems if ignored. Supporting the walls is imperative, or else they may collapse, let in moisture, or allow mold and pests to thrive.
While bowing may look like tilting, a bowing wall is a very different beast. A bowed wall is more dramatic. If you have a bowed wall, you will notice that the middle of the wall is coming inward, but the top and the bottom are staying mostly in position. Similar to tilting walls, bowing walls can collapse, let in moisture, and allow pests into your basement. It’s important to fix bowing walls as quickly as possible, as the problems will definitely start more quickly than you would expect.
A foundation won’t break all on its own and channel anchors won’t necessarily be needed unless certain factors are in play. However, there are some things that can be more impactful on your foundation, which can increase the chances that you’ll need channel anchors.
- Soil
The foundation of each home is surrounded by soil, which keeps pushing into the walls from the outside. In normal circumstances, your foundation will be well-built and able to resist it. However, there are cases where a foundation may not hold up so well. For example, the soil may begin to settle over time, or the area may experience severe flooding. Soil can place a dangerous amount of pressure against your foundation. With no pressure against the walls from the inside, the foundation can start to crack.
Expansive soil holds specific potential issues — it will expand and contract depending on how much moisture it contains. When the soil is lacking in moisture, such as during a dry season, it will contract, causing the foundation of your home to sink. During the wet seasons, it will then expand. This in-and-out motion will be hard on the fixed structure of your house. It may cause cracks to form in the foundation as the walls start to move. As the process continues, the walls will have no support and eventually become unstable.
- Water
There are two main ways that water can negatively impact the home’s structure. Hydrostatic pressure is the technical term for the water pressure in the soil surrounding the foundation of the house. The higher the water pressure in the soil, the more pressure gets exerted on the home’s walls or its foundation. In particular, rainy seasons can have a huge impact on the structure of the foundation. During a rainy season, such as the spring, the water pressure will build and push up against the house. This may cause the foundation to begin to bow or tilt as a result.
Frost is another water-driven enemy of foundations. During the winter months, when the water inside the soil begins to freeze, it also expands. This will push up against your home. When spring comes, the frost will melt, and the soil will contract, causing the foundation to shift once again. In many cases, the foundation of your home will start to crack as it settles. If you regularly have freezing issues outside your home, you need to think about the impact frost will have on your foundation. There are ways to mitigate this impact, and channel anchors may be one of the best ways to do it.
Some people may wonder whether or not channel anchors are actually necessary for their homes. Why could you not just leave the foundation to itself? As soon as you notice issues like basement wall bowing and tilting, you should start looking into foundation repairs.
- General Home Health Concerns
Most common for homes with structural issues are general home health concerns. As soon as you start to see tilting and bowing in your home, you should be aware that you’re going to experience some home health issues. These health issues will always start in the basement, but they can easily move up to the rest of the home as well. This is mostly because bowing and tilting are both going to lead into cracking, and even the smallest amount of cracking can cause overarching problems for your home.
This is mostly because of the issues of water. If your tilting and bowing walls are happening due to hydrostatic pressure or frost, you’re already primed for water intrusion. That water can cause high levels of humidity, wood rot, mold, and other problems. This process can also lead to the intrusion of pests through those cracks, which can easily lead to a full-blown pest infestation. Both of these things can have a negative impact on you and your family’s health, as well as on the health of your home. No matter what you’re experiencing, avoiding these health concerns will always be your best bet.
- Foundation Buckling and Structural Collapse
Though this is less common, it’s still a genuine concern. While it’s true that most homes will never undergo complete structural collapse, there’s really no way to know whether your home’s tilting foundation walls will eventually collapse or whether they’ll tilt to a certain extent and then end up being okay. Any time you see foundation walls that are buckling like that, it’s a good idea to assume that it’s going to eventually collapse and take steps to ensure that it doesn’t.
Channel anchors will help you avoid this worst-case scenario. While you may technically be able to get by with some patchwork fixes over time, why would you want to even run the risk of potentially ending up with that worst-case scenario? Even if you don’t end up with the worst-case scenario, you will definitely end up with serious problems that you’ll have to deal with over time. Channel anchors will help you bolster your home’s health, making it less likely that you’ll end up with any serious problems, no matter what those problems are.
Choose Innovative Basement Authority for Channel Anchor Installation
At Innovative Basement Authority, we’re proud to serve Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and eastern Montana. If you find that the harsh weather of our region is doing a number on your foundation, you can trust us to install the measures you need. Our capable team of experts can assess the damage, provide you with options, and offer a free quote, so your budgeting is accurate.
Channel anchors are the easiest permanent solution that will stabilize the walls without a full foundation replacement. If you notice your foundation walls are bowing in at the top or bottom, don’t hesitate to get a free quote.
