Foundation Repair Capitol Heights

Capitol Heights is one of the best places to live if you want to be near Washington D.C. without being in it. Kingdom Square provides a place to shop, the Washington Redskins aren’t very far away thanks to the presence of their football stadium, and for people that don’t feel like driving to commute, the Capitol Heights Metro Station makes public transportation easy.

But none of these conveniences cover a particular problem that some Capitol Heights residents may have right in their own homes. It’s not a common problem, but for the people that do have it, this slow-acting, nearly invisible risk threatens the structural integrity of an entire home, and can have very expensive consequences. Fortunately, there is an answer for this problem, and it’s foundation repair in Capitol Heights.

The Problem Under Your Feet

In a lot of ways, the foundation of a home is something that was always meant to be ignored. It was one of the first things that was built for a home, and in contemporary dwellings is usually excavated and forms part of the basement. Modern foundations are a concrete floor for the basement bolstered by walls and pillars, all of which are designed to support each other and equally distribute the weight of the building that is built on top of it. If all goes well, this creates an immobile, stable environment that residents simply take for granted, which is why it’s easy to forget what it’s doing and concentrate on other home concerns, such as improving insulation or getting more energy efficient windows.

These are the reasons why a team with expertise in foundation repair in Capitol Heights can be a valuable ally. In the majority of cases, homeowners won’t even know there is a problem with their foundation. The damage that a foundation incurs takes place at such a slow rate that an initial home owner won’t even realize it’s happening and it may take a new family moving in years later to finally experience the full extent of the problem.

Slow Damage

The biggest differentiator between foundation damage and that other parts of the home is pace. Foundation damage occurs—unsurprisingly—on more of a geological time frame, often taking years before it becomes visible. This isn’t like a light bulb that won’t go off one day, or a window that gets broken in an accident. Foundation damage usually occurs because of invisible forces like weight being applied to the wrong places over years. The other factor may be erosive forces like water slowly exploiting flaws in concrete or construction that happen bit by bit, over days, weeks, months and years, before finally becoming visible somewhere that a homeowner would notice.

And by the time it gets to the level where casual observation can pinpoint an issue, this means the problem is already severe, and has been occurring within the home for a long time. Visible signs like cracks appearing in home walls, basement walls, or steps and floors becoming crooked are all “late stage symptoms.” And if a home is already at this point, it will need foundation repair in Capitol Heights to professionally solve the problem.

How Damage Happens

The health and function of a foundation is predicated on one principle; the equal distribution of weight. The foundation sits on soil, and the walls and pillars built for that foundation are positioned in such a way that when the home is built on top, there’s a balance of forces. Damage to a foundation begins when this is no longer the case. Obviously, if there has been poor workmanship on the construction of a home, this will be a major factor in a foundation taking on damage right from the first day, but this is a less common factor than many think.

The usual reasons for foundation damage occur because of factors that no architect, engineer or construction worker would be able to take account of. No can, for example, predict that changes in weather and how wind and water are distributed over a particular series of years could cause erosion or a shift in soil. If a foundation was built over a solid layer of soil and that soil, 20 years later, begins to move away from one corner, that unforeseen complication will now create a space over which weight from the home is being pushed down on a part of the foundation now hanging over empty space.

This can cause a home to tilt, resulting in uneven floors, or, in more severe cases, actively start to pull a home apart, resulting in cracks in walls, steps slowly breaking up as they move in different directions and structural integrity of the entire building under threat. Water can also contribute to damage, eroding concrete, pooling in the basement, and, for finished basements, damaging drywall, carpeting and any furniture that may be in the space. At this stage, a team of experts in foundation repair in Capitol Heights is the only real solution.

Get The Experts

Foundation repair in Capitol Heights is provided by experienced, knowledgeable teams like AA Action Waterproofing. When you come to us, we’ll give you a comprehensive assessment that looks at the damage, determines the cause, and presents an action plan for fixing the problem as well as eliminating the factors that caused the damage in the first place.

When you come to AA Action Waterproofing, you’re putting your home in one of the best teams for foundation repair in Capitol Heights. Contact us today to see what we can do for you.