What is the Connection Between Soil and the Stability of a Home’s Foundation
Have you ever heard or wondered that using high quality supplies in the early stages of home building will guarantee the stability of the foundation? This is not correct completely! No doubt the kind of equipment you use will help in keeping the foundation strong. But it is not the sole factor here. The biggest factor is the soil on which you home is and will be built upon.
This is the reason soil is an important engineering decision of the building process. The foundation of a building needs to be on strong and stable soil. The strength of the soil decides if it will be able to support a skyscraper or wouldn’t even support the weight of a human. An unstable soil will lead to the foundation of a building to sink, crack or fall.
This is why, today we will talk about soil and and how it affects the stability of a home’s foundation:
Types of Soil
There are several types of soil and every soil is different from each other. All of these soils have their own unique properties that makes them distinct from each other. And these features can drastically impact the foundation of your home. A few of these soils are:
Sand – These are granular materials that cover the beach sides. It comes in white, black, green among other colors.
Peat – It is a mixture of decomposed material that has been accumulated over time in water saturated environment that has almost no oxygen.
Rock – Bedrock, sandstone and limestone have high weight bearing capacity. The features of rocks i.e firmness, stability and depth makes it a good option for your foundation.
Clay – It forms because of rock erosion and weathering.
Silt – The form of soil that makes mud. Silt is good at retaining water but erodes easily.
Loam – Loam contains the balanced amount of clay, silt and sand.
Types of Damages to Home Foundation caused by Soil
If you don’t take soil around the foundation into consideration, it can cause severe and expensive damage to your foundation that can make the structure unlivable. A few of the damages are explained here:
- The cracking or fracturing of your basement floor
- The floor and walls shift to extreme level making your home unstable and unlivable for you
- From the burst pipes, there could be extreme water damage and growth of mold or mildew due to dampness in the basement
- The doors and windows of your home won’t close properly because of settling
- Throughout your home, hairline cracks will appear in the drywall of rooms
So, it is extremely important to find the soil type surrounding your existing foundation and authenticate that it will support the foundation for many years to come and will reduce any structural damage. Also, support piers can help you build an even and solid surface for the foundation. To know more about the effect of soil on the foundation of your home, get in touch with us today!