If you’re a home owner, or looking to be one in the near future, there are probably a few maintenance projects that you should be keeping an eye on. Whether you’re looking at homes to purchase, or have lived in the same house for 10 years, the same issues need to be tackled on a regular basis. One of the most important details that is often overlooked is the quality of a home’s foundation.
Anything is possible with a solid foundation, but if that foundation starts to show signs of age or becomes compromised, there’s a whole slue of problems that will inevitably arise. Among these are flooding, infestations, and structural instability. Basement cracks and leaks are a major source of lost money for home owners everywhere, and preventing them is of the utmost importance. Not to mention a lot of money lost! Repairing cracked foundation is expensive, but if you catch it before it gets too bad, you could save yourself a lot of valuable time and money.
In 2013, water damage accounted for nearly 30% of all insurance claims. Flooding isn’t something that just ruins books and carpets, it can destroy your home’s foundation as well. To prevent flooding, your home’s foundation should be inspected regularly for cracks and any other sort of damage, and the area around your foundation should follow a few rules. First, the soil around your home should slope downward at about six inches for every 10 feet or so. This helps direct the flow of water down and away from your foundation. In addition, any plants around the perimeter of your house should be a minimum of two feet away from the foundation, and planted low enough in the soil to draw water away from the foundation.
Home waterproofing is a good preventative measure to avoid flooding, but foundation sealing should be an afterthought to the structure of the original foundation to begin with. If you own an older home, foundation repair may be necessary much sooner than you want it to be. Repairing cracked foundation is important, but not as important as inspecting your home regularly enough to prevent major damage. Don’t let all of your hard work on your home go to waste!
You must be logged in to post a comment.