Foundation Repair

If there aren’t proper drainage solutions installed on your property, water can pool around your foundation walls and cause serious damage. Signs that water is being improperly channeled around the perimeter of your home include:

• Leaking, overflowing gutters
• Downspouts that dump water directly into the soil surrounding your home
• Soil erosion
• Puddles in yard after heavy rain
• Efflorescence on foundation walls
• Mold or mildew in basement or crawl space

Hydrostatic pressure is the pressure that standing water in the soil surrounding your home places on your foundation. The pull of gravity causes the water to push hard against anything that restricts its flow—in this case, your foundation walls. Hydrostatic pressure can cause foundation walls to crack and bow, and can even force water through the smallest of fractures and the wall-floor joint.

The soil in Atlanta and the surrounding areas is known as Georgia Red Clay. Georgia Red Clay is an expansive soil, known for expanding when it is wet and shrinking when it is dry. This creates two problems for your foundation: 

1. When expansive soils are wet, they expand and place a significant amount of pressure against your foundation walls. When the pressure is too much for your foundation to bear, your foundation walls will give way by bowing and cracking. 
2. When expansive soils dry out, they shrink and pull away from your foundation walls. This causes your foundation to settle, leading to differential settlement and foundation cracks. 

To level depressed or hollow areas where a foundation will be built, or to fill in gaps once a foundation has been poured, contactors sometimes bring in loose fill soil. This freshly disrupted fill soil is much looser than the dense, hard-packed virgin soils on site. If fill soil isn’t compacted well, it may compress underneath the weight of the new home, creating settlement problems that can cause foundation damage. 

While tree roots are unlikely to push through your foundation walls, they can cause damage by disrupting the soils around your home. During drought, clay soils dry and cause roots to shrink. When it rains, the roots absorb water and expand. This constant expansion and shrinkage of tree roots causes soils to become weak and less supportive, often leading to foundation settlement. 

Heavy rain and busted pipes can lead to soil washout under your foundation. When soil washes out from under your home, foundation settlement can occur, leading to foundation cracks.