Updated 10/03/24

Your house has many parts, from a foundation to siding to windows to the roof. When the foundation isn’t strong or well-maintained, the rest of the structure is at risk of damage or complete deterioration. If you notice an issue with your foundation, you’ll want to fix it right away to avoid losing your savings to extensive emergency repairs or even losing your home due to irreparable damage. While delaying repairs to a foundation can cause the damage to worsen, you won’t want to rush into repairing it yourself. Most issues can wait until a concrete repair service or another qualified contractor comes to your home to fix the foundation.

Some problems like a shifting foundation or weak foundation may be harder to spot if you don’t know what they look like. Every homeowner should take time to familiarize themselves with foundation shifting red flags and signs of a crumbling foundation. Although you might think it’s impossible to miss a house with a cracked foundation, you’d be surprised at how easy it can be to overlook this issue when you don’t know what to expect. A subtle crack may be hard to notice, but it can still cause problems to the house’s structure.

All homes in the United States are built upon foundations, and Texan homes younger than 50 years are built on slab foundations, which may give them some advantages over other models. All the same, a home’s construction always begins with the foundation, but it may or may not be built well. A solid and quality foundation and basement will rarely suffer from foundation repair, but foundation failure may be more common if the construction work was sloppy, and residential foundation repair crews may need to be hired if a foundation is damaged due to poor construction or trauma such as an earthquake. Commercial foundation repair crews may never be far away, and residents of Texas may look up local crews for help, such as “Commercial foundation repair Dallas” or “foundation repair in Dallas Texas” to find local crews who can help with a compromised foundation. What can go wrong with a foundation or basement? What can be done to fix it?

Water and Radon

A number of problems may strike, and two particularly common problems are leaking water and radon gas. Sometimes, water can leak into the the basement or foundations of homes if the pipes of the house are leaking, and over time, enough water will drip into the home so that it builds up into bodies of standing water in the lowest points of the basement. Water may also break into the home if the foundation is faulty, and rainwater can get into the house during a storm. A lot of water may find ingress into a home’s lowest levels if it is found in a flash flood-prone area, and faulty foundations may end up letting a lot of water in. There may be as much as a foot of standing water or more in some cases.

Standing water is trouble. If there are no pumps or drains to get rid of it, water can erode and damage the floors and walls, not to mention cause water damage to items such as furniture in the basement. What is more, excessive moisture down in the basement can foster rapid growth of molds, and many American homeowners know exactly what mold can do. Mold will release a lot of harmful spores and other biological agents into the air that may set off allergies or asthma in people and pets in the home.

Radon gas is another issue that may present itself, and this radioactive gas is more of a threat than many homeowners may realize. This element occurs naturally in the ground, it will emit up into the air over time. If a home’s foundation is faulty and cracked, this may provide a lot of ingress for this radioactive element, and this can soon cause disaster. Smaller concentrations of radon gas can cause chest pain and nausea, and if this gas builds up enough in the home’s air, it can even cause lung cancer. Thousands of Americans perish every year due to radon gas and the lung cancer that it causes.

Fixes

Foundation repair and contractor crews can be hired to fix the damage in a basement or foundations caused by floods, water, or earthquakes, and these professionals can also seal up and fix cracks that may allow radon gas into the home and fix up water damage to concrete and other surfaces. A homeowner can contact multiple crews and compare and contrast their expertise and customer reviews to find the best team, and this can also be done when finding a plumber to fix leaking pipes to prevent that source of water damage. Plumbers can also install or upgrade drains in the water, and they can even install sump pumps and channels that divert water to them. A sump pump will draw up water and remove it from the house whenever necessary.

Meanwhile, a homeowner can buy and set up a radon testing kit to check the home’s air for dangerous radon levels, and this kit will transmit the test results after 90 days or more. The homeowner will then be contacted and told their radon levels, and if the concentration is above the EPA’s action level, the home’s air should be recycled and refreshed. This can even save lives.