Foundations
- Five Reasons Why You Should Inspect Your Concrete Building Foundation - If you live in a house with a concrete building foundation, you better read this article. I'm going to give you five reasons why you should inspect your concrete building foundation. Whether you listen and follow it is going to be completely up to you.
- Checking the Building for Square - The most important thing when building a home is the ability to keep everything as square, plumb and level as possible. Starting with the foundation, if the foundation is not square or level, the rest of the house is going to be out of alignment.
- Filling Large Foundation Cracks - Listen to Experience - If you have a foundation crack that you can stick a nickel into, you have a structural foundation problem. I haven't found any fillers or epoxies that will bring it back to its original strength. These items can only be used to fill the cracks up.
- Understanding Structural Foundation Damage - If you live in a house that has large cracks in the walls or large cracks coming off of the corners of your doors and window openings, there's a good chance that your house is suffering from structural foundation damage. What does it look like and what can we do about it?
- Using Digital Cameras to Monitor Foundation Damage - Let's see, most contractors use jack hammers, wheelbarrows, structural rebar and concrete to deal with foundation problems, but a digital camera. How can a digital camera help us fix our building foundations?
- Three Methods for Repairing Your House Foundation - You realize that you have some large cracks and some damage to your building foundation. What are you going to do about the damage and is it even that big of a deal? Here are 3 methods for repairing your house foundation that you might find extremely helpful, especially if you have any damage.
- Problems with Hiring Inexperienced Foundation Contractors - The problems with hiring anyone who doesn't have enough experience can be extremely frustrating. If you're planning on hiring a foundation contractor to fix or repair your home's foundation, it wouldn't be a bad idea to make sure that they have enough experience, before you let them start on the project.
- Laying out Complex Building Foundations - Laying out a square building foundation can be complicated. How in the world do they lay out some of these extremely difficult or complex building foundations that you see in million-dollar homes today?
- Over Digging Creates Foundation Problems - If you're planning on building a new home, make sure that you or your contractor does not over dig the foundations. This can create big problems in the future and many homes today suffer from these types of problems.
- Problems with Small Foundation Cracks - One of the biggest problems was small foundation cracks is that they can actually get bigger. The small ones usually aren't that big of a problem, however once they start to get larger or continue growing, now is when you have a big problem with your building foundation.
- Structural Foundation Repairs Can Be Dangerous - Over the years I have seen contractors repair damaged foundations with amazement sometimes. How in the heck did these professionals remove the damaged structural foundation to a large building without it collapsing? Like I said, sometimes I can't believe some of the structural foundation repairs that I have seen in the past.
- Big Problems Using Concrete Foundation Piers - Building Repairs - A concrete foundation pier can be purchased at almost any lumber yard and home improvement center around the world. They are usually about 12 inches tall and their base is usually about 12 inches wide and works its way up, to a 6 inch square at the top and this usually has two metal brackets sticking straight up out of it. These metal brackets can be nailed onto the post that will be supporting the floor framing.
- Take Pictures of Your Growing Foundation Damage or Cracks - I champion people and try to get them to look at their house, at least once a year. One of the easiest ways to inspect your home is to use a home inspection checklist and if you really want a good home inspection checklist, there's a good chance that you are going to need to purchase one. You get what you pay for and don't ever forget that.
- Concrete Foundation Soil Erosion Problems - Lawn Sprinklers - If you live in a home where your concrete foundation is starting to sink into the ground or one part of your home is a little higher than the other part, you could have concrete foundation soil erosion problems. Here's the first thing that you're going to need to do and I hope this helps.
- How to Protect Foundation Plumbing Pipes? - Concrete Building Foundations - If you install any underground plumbing pipes, in your concrete building foundation, you will need to protect them, from the concrete. You can use a variety of products and the most common of them will be a Styrofoam wrapping that can be purchased at most plumbing supply stores.