Foundation Repair Taneytown
Like a few other towns in Maryland, Taneytown is older than the United States itself. Sitting in north-central Maryland, the town is too far away from any large cities to be a suburb, but it still keeps going thanks to some tourism and a few local corporations. But as a result of this age and its stable size, the town also has homes and businesses from many different eras. This makes foundation repair in Taneytown a constant concern.
No Foundation Lasts Forever
The only things in life that are certain are death and taxes, and foundations are neither one. A solid block of concrete can seem solid and immoveable, but then it’s easy to see the lie in that when you consider how quickly paved roads can crack and crumble. Building foundations have the advantage of getting buried underground and not having heavy cars and trucks constantly rumbling across them, but there are other forces at work.
For instance, water may be a part of all living things, but it’s also the most powerful erosive force on the planet. When water infiltrates stone, such as by entering a crack in basement walls or a foundation slab, it can force the crack wider as it expands when it gets cold and contracts when it gets warm. This means fall and spring tend to be the worst seasons for concrete wear.
The other major source of wear is the movement of the soil itself. Grass, trees, and other plants can stabilize the soil with their roots, but they can’t stop it from moving completely. Settling soil can undermine a foundation and cause it to crack, or it can put lateral earth pressure on the side of a basement and cause the walls to bow or crack. And since what happens to a foundation can affect the building above it, you should perform your foundation repair in Taneytown or elsewhere as soon as possible.
Foundation Repair Doesn’t Have To Be Expensive
Foundation repair in Taneytown isn’t always about breaking down and completely replacing the slab. You can repair small cracks and get a few extra years or even decades out of a good foundation, and in some cases you can do the job yourself. This is especially true if you fix a crack as soon as possible, because it only grows and becomes more expensive as time goes by.
Even when the soil moves and puts pressure on the concrete, you can stabilize it in one of several ways. After waterproofing the area to make sure water can’t get in and damage things further, you can reinforce the walls with steel or carbon fiber beams, or you can anchor the wall to some nearby bedrock with underground cables. You can also prop up a settling basement slab by slabjacking, or pouring a concrete grout into the hollow space, or by installing piers that can hold the foundation’s weight.
When To Get The Experts
While fixing a few small, dry foundation cracks may be a good home improvement project for some people, it’s also important to know your limits and know when to call in the professionals. If assembling your own furniture is an easy task and painting a room is moderate, repairing a foundation starts as equal to installing your own drywall and gets harder from there. And considering that a mistake could permanently devalue the building, there’s no shame in relying on professional basement and waterproofing contractors.
If you need someone to perform a foundation repair in Taneytown or anywhere else in the state of Maryland, AA Action Waterproofing can help. We also serve communities in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, D.C., and northern Virginia.
Our company has been around for three decades now, and throughout all the years we’ve never seen a foundation, basement, or crawlspace we couldn’t fix. If you need help with basement waterproofing, crawlspace encapsulation, or foundation repair, or if you need someone to deal with a mold problem, you can call us today for a free estimate. There’s no obligation to make use of our services even after we perform our initial inspection, so you don’t need to worry about paying us until after you know what you’re paying for.