When it comes to protecting your home from damage, you’ll want to find the best way to save money and to preserve your home’s overall value. When you’re faced with foundation damage, it can be difficult to know which of your available solutions might suit you best.
Enter the carbon fiber reinforcing system. Pioneered by the U.S. Department of Defense as well as by aerospace engineers, this reinforcing system has been used before to help bridges and skyscrapers stay upright. With help from the Innovative Basement Authority professionals serving Minnesota, North Dakota, and eastern Montana, you can integrate these materials into your foundation to prevent the kind of problems that may allow unwanted moisture into your home.
Carbon Fiber: The New Wall Reinforcement System
Foundation repair experts have a plethora of tools available to them, all of which can help you restore your foundation if it happens to suffer from any unexpected damage. Of these tools, a carbon fiber wall reinforcing system can help support any walls that are beginning to crack or bow in your basement.
Carbon fiber supports, it should be noted, are relatively unobtrusive wall supports that can be integrated throughout your foundation. These supports will stand in or work in tandem with the structural supports you already have in place, helping ensure that your foundation doesn’t sustain further damage.
When a professional installs a reinforcement system like this in your home, they will need to:
- Inspect the walls that appear to have suffered damage to determine how many wall straps or supports you will need to properly support the walls
- Clean the walls that appear to have cracked, bowed, or otherwise suffered damage due to exposure to moisture
- Cut the straps to match the height of the damaged walls
- Connect a prepared strap to the damaged wall
- Support the strap with epoxy resin
The combination of the resin and strap material together will help hold your foundation walls up as they contend with the weight of your home. Note that these straps do not help keep moisture or water out of your home. For that, you’re going to want to work with area professionals to explore what kinds of waterproofing measures might pair well with your available supports.
Carbon Fiber and Your Foundation
It’s not always easy to determine whether or not your foundation is in good repair. You can always reach out to area experts for an annual home inspection, after which you can determine whether or not you have substantial structural concerns to worry about.
As mentioned, should there be damage somewhere in your foundation, carbon fiber wall reinforcing systems provide you with a subtle but incomparably strong means through which you can permanently stabilize your walls. The combination of the epoxy resin and the carbon fiber strap that area professionals use will not only hedge up your wall for the moment, but it will maintain its strength over time.
Note that even a solution as impressive as a carbon fiber wall reinforcing system will last forever. After you have these straps installed throughout your foundation, you’ll want to continue scheduling annual home inspections to ensure that they’re working as they should and no additional water damage has started to cause problems across your property.
If it is found that your foundation walls are severely cracking and bowing, carbon fiber supports may not be enough to support them. While these sturdy supports permanently reinforce damaged walls, they will not restore the walls to their original positions. Other solutions such as wall anchors or special wall braces may be needed to help fix these walls.
Your Foundation and Unwanted Cracks and Leaks
Your home doesn’t start to display signs of damage for no reason. If you think that you’re experiencing higher levels of moisture throughout your home, or if you’ve seen gathered water in your basement or crawl space, it’s more than likely that you have some manner of damage on your hands.
You’ll most often see foundation damage in your home if it’s fallen victim to:
- Hydrostatic Pressure
Hydrostatic pressure can build up outside of your home when you’re forced to contend with heavy rains or shifting soil. This pressure puts moisture in contact with the materials making up your foundation. In turn, that moisture forces those materials with which it has contact to change shape on a molecular level. As those molecules expand and contract, your structural supports can begin to crack in an attempt to hold up under the pressure.
Effectively, hydrostatic pressure can not only cause your foundation to crack and leak in the first place, but it can also allow additional moisture into the rest of your home. This means that a foundation leak can then result in a pipe leakage, which will make it all the more difficult for you to determine why it is, precisely, that you’re contending with so much water damage throughout the rest of your home.
- Moving Tree Roots
While you don’t have to worry about Audrey II coming after your home, you will still want to consider the kind of effect wayward tree roots can have on the overall structural integrity of your foundation. Trees that are planted too close to your home, for example, can grow to the point where they disturb the integrity of the soil beneath your foundation.
While, again, these roots aren’t going to attack your foundation, they can cause the soil beneath your foundation to shift, leaving gaps in their wake. In turn, your foundation can start to sink into those gaps, eventually cracking as it tries to remain in a single piece. This makes it easier for moisture to make its way up into your basement or crawl space.
- Infestations
Critters can have a negative impact on your foundation’s overall structural integrity. Burrowing animals like rabbits and groundhogs can work much as tree roots do, though often at a faster pace. These creatures can leave burrows beneath your home that extend up to 45 feet in length.
Gravity, in turn, can cause your foundation to begin sinking into these burrows, especially if they’re uninhabited. As your foundation sinks unevenly, it can begin to crack, thereby allowing unwanted moisture into the rest of your home.
Signs of Foundation Damage
The good news, when it comes to foundation damage, is that the experts in your area will be able to help you determine early on whether or not that damage is confined to your basement and crawl space or if it’s seeped down into your foundation.
You have the opportunity to walk through your home before reaching out to an area expert. While you’re searching for signs of damage, you’ll want to keep an eye out for the following:
- Mold clusters
- Damaged personal belongings
- Bowing walls
- Sagging, bouncy, or uneven floors
- Puddles or signs of evaporated water
Unpleasant smells can also give away basement, crawl space, and foundation damage, as the moisture in the air can fill your home with an overall musty scent. If you notice any of the above, then you’ll want to reach out to a professional as soon as possible to schedule a home inspection. With a professional on hand, again, you can start to determine what kind of repairs you may need to restore your home to its previous value and standards of safety.
Wall Reinforcing Systems
FAQs
Your foundation can start to crack and leak for a myriad of reasons. The most common include:
- Shifting Soil
Tree roots and pests alike can cause the soil beneath your home to shift. These outside forces can leave gaps in your soil in their wake, and gravity, in turn, can force your foundation to begin to settle prematurely.
That kind of settling, especially if it is uneven, can cause cracks to form in your foundation. It can also damage any accessory structures you have attached to your home, including your garage, front porch, or patio.
- Hydrostatic Pressure
More often than not, moisture in the soil around your foundation can inflict stress upon the materials keeping your home in place. This hydrostatic pressure causes the molecules of your home’s structural supports to rapidly expand and contract. To compensate for those changes in size, your structural supports will develop cracks, thus allowing more water into your home and causing your walls to bow, your floor to buckle, and other forms of damage to appear throughout your basement or crawl space.
Compensating for hydrostatic pressure isn’t an easy task, but that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. If you install waterproofing measures around your home, you can prevent unwanted moisture from having as much as an impact on your home’s structural supports.
Unfortunately, foundation cracks or leaks do not resolve themselves over time. You’re going to want to take action as soon as you suspect something may be wrong with your home if you want to prevent your home from losing some of its value.
- Covering Symptoms Instead of the Problem
On occasion, it may feel easier to try and attend to the symptoms of a foundation leak as opposed to the problem itself. For example, if you’re concerned about your budget, you might opt to just mop up the water in your basement every time it rains instead of reaching out to the professionals in your area.
While frugality in terms of budget is commendable, it can do you more harm than good in the long run. The longer you leave a foundation crack or leak unattended, the larger it can become. As these cracks fester, they can compromise the overall structural integrity of your home to the point where the property becomes unsafe to stay in. As such, it’s often in your best interest to reach out for professional advice as soon as something goes wrong in your home instead of trying to wait out the symptoms.
- DIY Versus Professional Care
You may also be inclined to try and fix a problem with your foundation on your own. Hypothetically, this can be done. However, unless you have the same amount of experience as the professionals in your area, it’s more likely than not that you’ll actually do more damage to your home than good.
To repair your foundation on your own, you’ll first need to excavate the entirety of that pour. Again, this can be done, but without the specialty tools and multiple hands on deck, it can take between weeks and months. Similarly, you may end up spending more on the materials you need to repair your foundation than you would if you were working with a professional. Contractors, after all, can collaborate with providers with whom they have existing deals, while you’ll have to research your own materials and purchase them on your own at market price.
If you’re budget-conscious, you’ll want to work with professionals ahead of time to determine what kind of repairs your foundation needs and, in turn, how much those repairs are going to cost.
- Pricing Foundation Repair
Repairing your foundation, as mentioned, is an in-depth process. The overall cost of repairing your foundation, however, will vary based on the kind of damage you’ve seen and the size of your home. You can discuss these factors over with a professional during your first home inspection, at which point you can look over your provided free quote for a better idea of what your repairs might cost you.
- Pricing the Installation of a Carbon Fiber Reinforcing System
In a similar vein, the cost of installing a carbon fiber reinforcing system will vary based on several unique factors around your home. If you live in a larger home, for example, then the cost of materials is going to run you more than it would if you had less square footage to contend with.
That said, you can discuss your installation options with area professionals to determine whether or not there are cuts you can make to better fit an installation to your budget. You can also discuss alternative foundation repair solutions.
DIY Foundation Repair Versus Professional Assistance
If you’re concerned about your budget when considering foundation repair, you may be tempted to try and install a carbon fiber wall reinforcing system or an equivalent repair or waterproofing measure on your own. Unfortunately, doing so is ill-advised.
Most carbon fiber wall reinforcement systems are only available to you if you work with an area professional. As mentioned, these systems have been used by aerospace engineers as well as by the United States Department of Defense – they’re effective, but they’re not the easiest for the average homeowner to get their hands on.
Furthermore, attempting to install systems like a carbon fiber wall reinforcing system without help from a professional can actually do more damage to your harm than good. Any manner of foundation repair will require contending with the complexities of your foundation, to the point where you may accidentally damage the supports you have in place or simply mask the problem with which you are facing.
If you do end up masking the real problem with your foundation during an attempt to install your own supports, you will eventually have to reach out to area professionals to contend with the different side effects of that festering damage.
Innovative Basement Authority Repair Professionals Are Here for You
When you need to protect your foundation from water damage, you don’t have to experiment with your available home repair solutions. You can work with the professionals at Innovative Basement Authority to install a carbon fiber reinforcing system in your home. This way, you can protect your home from future instances of cracking, bowing, and the effects of hydrostatic pressure. To learn more about your foundation repair options, you can reach out to Innovative Basement Authority foundation repair professionals to schedule a free inspection and repair quote.
