Garland Foundation Tips

Repairing a damaged home foundation is a relatively quick and straightforward process. While the job itself may take two or three days, the benefits you’ll enjoy will be well worth the time invested.

In most cases, home foundation repair involves five distinct steps. These are:

1. Preparing the worksite.
2. Excavating the area around the foundation.
3. Raising and stabilizing the foundation itself.
4. Making sure that the home is now level.
5. Cleaning up the worksite.

Let’s look at these foundation repair methods in more detail.

Preparing the Worksite

The first step in our foundation repair services is to prepare your home and landscaping. We do our best to protect shrubs, bushes, and small trees. In some cases, we may need to dig up and temporarily move these items. If so, we’ll replant them later. However, we are not able to ensure the survival of all plants.

Excavating the Area around the Foundation

The purpose of this step is to gain access to the sections of your foundation where we’ll insert the piers. Our workers will pile the dirt onto either tarps or sheets of plywood and fill in the holes once the piers are in place.

Raising and Stabilizing the Foundation Itself

During this step, we’ll place piers into the holes we dug earlier and use special equipment to drive them into the bedrock beneath your home. We’ll then use steel shims to secure the piers to your foundation. We may need to raise your home the appropriate amount to correct any sagging or sloping.

Making Sure That the Home Is Now Level

Our experts will check your home at multiple points to ensure that it’s level and properly supported. After that, we’ll give the foundation one more inspection to make sure that everything is as it should be.

Cleaning up the Worksite

The last step is to give the entire site a thorough cleaning. We’ll fill in the holes that we dug, remove landscape coverings, replant any shrubs or bushes that were dug up, if you desire them to be replaced, and take away any lumber, tarps, or debris that still remains.

Once this stage of the project is complete, your home will look the same as it did before our foundation repair company arrived. The chief difference will be that your floors are now level, and your foundation is strong and sound.

DFW Foundation Repair

Here at Align Foundation Repair, we’re proud to have built a reputation as a leading foundation repair company in Garland TX and the surrounding areas. Get in touch with us today to learn more about our foundation repair services and to schedule your free inspection and price estimate.

How long can you expect foundation repair to last? The answer to this question depends on many factors, including the type of foundation and the nature of the damage.

The most important factor is whether or not the repair is performed by a qualified foundation repair services company. DIY efforts can quickly fail, while work performed by a qualified professional contractor is designed to go the distance. For peace of mind regarding your investment, choose a repair company that offers a meaningful warranty. At Align Foundation Repair, we provide our customers with an industry-leading Lifetime Transferrable Warranty to back up our work. We give you a:

• Lifetime Transferable Warranty on concrete and steel piling
• Limited Lifetime Transferable Warranty on drilled pier construction
• 5-Year Limited Warranty on spread footing

Our warranties provide repairs, adjustments, and/or replacements at no cost whatsoever to the homeowner and can be transferred to future property owners at little to no cost.

The Two Types of Home Foundations in North Texas

Most home foundations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area fall into one of two types:

1. Pier + Beam: This design uses a series of horizontal braces, or piers, to support the residence. The home’s perimeter is surrounded by either poured concrete walls or mortared concrete blocks.
2. Poured slab foundation: The key benefit of this design is its simplicity. The construction company digs a square or rectangular hole in the ground, fills it with concrete, and reinforces it with rebar or post-tension cables. The home sits directly on top.

Both types of foundations are good choices for the hot, dry climate here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. On the other hand, each also has its share of weaknesses. Correcting these problems may require a service call from a foundation repair company.

4 Things That Can Go Wrong with a Pier + Beam Foundation

Common problems with pier foundations include:

1. Settling: Hastily prepared foundation piers can sink into the ground, throwing the home off level or warping its frame.
2. Moisture damage: Caused by poor ventilation, rainwater pooling in the crawlspace, or both.
3. Shifting soil: Any foundation is only as strong as the ground that supports it. Here in Texas, we’re subject to prolonged droughts and torrential rainstorms, both of which can weaken the earth beneath the piers and cause them to collapse.
4. Structural fatigue: A pier foundation takes a lot of pounding during its lifetime.

One way to repair a pier and beam foundation is to replace the original supports with new, properly installed piers set on modern, wide-profile footings. This method prevents further damage to the home and keeps it safe and level over the long term. Also, replacing damaged wood members can provide long lasting stability.

4 Things That Can Go Wrong with a Poured Slab Foundation

A poured slab foundation may sound like the perfect choice due to its simplicity and inherent strength. But there are four things that can go wrong with this design:

1. Water damage: Slab foundations sit at ground level, making them vulnerable to flooding and stagnant water.
2. Cracks and fractures: Sometimes slab foundations are completed in haste using either substandard concrete or inadequate curing times. This can cause stress fractures.
3. Shifting soil: As with pier foundations, a poured concrete slab is vulnerable to moving earth.
4. Age: Poured slab foundations have been in wide use across North Texas since the end of World War II more than 75 years ago. Time will eventually cause many of the older ones to fail.

We use a variety of methods to repair a poured slab foundation. One approach is to inject a polyurethane foam into the underlying soil, which raises the slab and levels it out. This solution is considered permanent, since the foam is extremely strong and impervious to rot or decay.

Why DIY Foundation Repair Usually Fails

Lots of home improvement projects are well within the reach of a skilled DIYer. When it comes to foundation repair, however, it’s best to call a Garland, Texas foundation repair company. One reason for this is the fact that modern homes can weigh as much as 160,000 pounds, not including the foundation. Adjusting a building of this size requires industrial-grade materials and a thorough knowledge of structural engineering. Otherwise, you may be faced with burst pipes, electrical fires, or irreparable frame damage.

If you live in Garland or anywhere else in our wide range of DFW foundation repair service locations, call us today for your free inspection and estimate.

Who isn’t guilty of procrastination? People by nature have an out of sight out of mind mentality. Unfortunately, this can be detrimental when it comes to the health of your home and especially the foundation. Holding off seemingly minor repairs can lead to much more severe issues down the line.

• Some foundation problems progress slowly and others progress rapidly.
• There is no way to know simply by eyeballing the damage whether it is progressing slowly or rapidly
• Foundation changes can mean added damage when lifting is required, or a need to work on the interior of the house
• Waiting until the damage progresses can add to the cost of the repair
• Sometimes waiting until the problem is bad leads to reduction in repairability

Do Foundation Problems Always Get Worse?

Foundations tend to sink over time due to the contraction of the soil, caused by back-and-forth moisture retention and dry spells. Early indicators of a compromised foundation include visible cracks in the walls or jammed windows and doors. If you ignore these signs, the symptoms can exacerbate to larger cracks or even complete separation in the walls. Does it always get worse? Not always, but it does more often than not due to the soil conditions in the North Texas area.

The Consequences of Neglecting Repairs

Ignoring repairs can cause spreading structural damage. A weakened foundation has a domino effect where the damage can spread to areas like the floors, walls, ceiling, and window frames. Other damages include:

• Plumbing – As the cracks begin to form, the damage can spread to the pipes. Leaky water leeches into the soil, creating the aforementioned contraction.
• Lost Property Value – Continued foundation damage leads to a decline in the home’s value. A real estate agent will not agree to put the property up for sale until costly repairs are made.
• Further Brick and Sheetrock Issues – Sinking foundations can cause horizontal or “stair-step” cracks in brick exteriors that in extreme cases can grow to 1″ wide. These cracks may allow water to seep into the basement, exacerbating damage to the foundation. Similarly, foundation damage can cause serious cracking in sheetrock, which may have to be replaced at a steep cost adding on to the expense of repairing the foundation issues that caused the cracking in the first place.
• Framing Issues – Sinking foundations can cause serious framing damage that can be very costly to repair. Cracked foundations can sink into the ground (especially at the corners of the building) causing damage to wall studs, roof rafters, door frames, ceiling joists, and more. If pressure from deformed framing is strong enough, doors and windows may not open. Framing lumber may need to be entirely replaced after the foundation is repaired.
• Roof Damage – Shifts in the foundation can also cause roof damage, telltale signs of which include sagging or bowing in the roofline, or sections with bulges or dips. If the damage is severe enough, sections of the roof may need to be replaced.

Don’t Let Foundation Damage Linger

The faster you act the more foundation repair options you have at your disposal, and the more affordable they are likely to be. Contact Align Foundation Repair at the first signs of a damaged foundation. Swift remediation from our Garland foundation repair service ensures you don’t end up with more serious and costly issues months or years down the road.