Realty.com

When the Foundation’s Weak

Posted February 26, 2010 by Matthew Denton

A look at your house’s foundation

Your home’s foundation is supposed to hold the entire house in place. But if the soil where your house is set shifts, you’d have to think about your safety. Climate change, weak construction and wrong analysis of the type of soil will eventually lead to your house developing cracks such as the one in this video:

Recently, the New York Times  featured an important message to every homeowner: maybe your house stands on a weak foundation. The report is quite alarming. It states, “Experts estimate the cost to homeowners to stabilize or shore up foundations is around $4 billion annually, up from $3 billion 10 years ago, although more houses have also been built in that time period. Subsidence is not covered by most homeowners’ insurance policies in the United States, unlike in Britain…Compounding the problem is that, during the recent housing boom in the United States, houses were built in areas where the soil was particularly prone to shift. “If you think about it, the best ground in cities is usually taken early on, so the builders and developers have often been expanding into less desirable areas, and in their rush to make money, may not have designed structures to deal with it,” said David Lourie, a geotechnical engineer in New Orleans.”

In order to prevent this from happening to your home, try to follow these steps:

Consider using sand or gravel when setting your foundation on soil. These have the lightest loads even when wet so they remain the most stable choice.

Ask your architect or home builder about the design of the foundation. He should allow for the pressure that can be imposed on the base soil. Heavy objects like parked cars can add pressure so be sure to have extra room for these loads.

Ask a geotechnical engineer to inspect the soil. He can evaluate the true soil condition.

Invest in lightweight footing forms that can last longer because of its quality.

Realty.com is a real estate search portal, dedicated to connecting home buyers and sellers to trusting real estate services. Follow the Realty.com blog for up to date housing news and trends. And monitor local mortgage rates at RealtyGadget.com.