Brick Repair Dallas

Homeowners who have foundation damage symptoms, do, in fact need to implement corrective measures as soon as possible. Corrective measures do not necessarily mean that you will need expensive repairs. For many homeowners Foundation Repairs will not solve the problem, in fact it can make the problem much worse.

Understanding Your Foundation Repair Salesperson

In far too many cases the foundation company's representative is there to sell you a repair job and if he doesn't he will not make any money. He is also in danger of losing his job if his closing rate is too low!

What do you think he is going to find when he does his inspection. I will bet you that he is going to find enough damage to warrant his company's services. He makes a commission and his job security goes up a notch. It is a rare foundation repair salesperson who will tell you that you do not need costly repairs. Advantage Masonry Foundation Repair does not depend solely on foundation repairs to sustain our business.

We will give you an honest evaluation and tell you if preventive maintenance can stabilize your foundation movement. Click Here for more information...

I do not want to mislead you, many foundation problems will require repairs. I am just pointing out that all situations are different. There are many reasons for foundation movement, not all of which can be resolved by installing a bunch of piers. The goal is to stabilize the movement and to do that you must figure out exactly what is causing it.

In many cases, simply addressing the root cause will save you a lot of money and give a much better result. Read on to learn about what causes foundation failure...

What Causes Foundation Failure?

The single most common cause of foundation failure is expansive soil. In many areas of Texas, especially in the DFW area, including Plano and McKinney the soil has a high clay content. If you take a sample of this soil when it is completely dry and add moisture until it is completely saturated it can expand to as much as twice its dry volume!

What this means is that if the moisture content of the soil around and beneath your foundation does not remain fairly consistent. You will more than likely experience Heaving and Shrinking which can cause foundation damage.

Heaving

Heaving is a situation where expanding soil has caused your foundation to be raised higher in specific areas. This is caused by the soil becoming more moist in some areas than it is in other areas.

If you have a problem with heaving you definitely do not want to install piers!
If you do, you will in effect raise the other areas that are likely at their proper elevations to the level of the heaved areas which are now elevated. You should never agree to repairs if you suspect that you have heaving.

This is a case where adding piers is not only unnecessary, it has the potential to cause more problems. When the soil that caused the heaving loses it's excess moisture it will return to it's normal level allowing the foundation in that area to sag. The reason is because the other areas have been raised above where they should be.

At this point the foundation company will want to raise the areas that heaved up to the level of the other piers that were installed because of the heaving. Now it is probably impossible to figure out what the correct elevation should be. As more of the foundation is raised beyond it's original elevation the interior areas will appear to be low and now the suggestion will be to raise those areas because they have supposedly now sagged, as you can see this could go on forever. Believe me, you do not want to be trapped in this situation.

There are many causes of heaving, plumbing leaks under the slab, low spots that allow water to pool, sprinkler systems and air conditioner condenser drains are some of the most common.

The point is that these types of conditions must be corrected or you are wasting your money on costly repairs. You can in some cases end up spending more money to make your problem worse.

Your foundation salesperson will probably not mention any of this because, he may not know, but even if he does know he may not say anything because, you guessed it, he wants to make the sale and he wants to make it now. He does not have time to wait for you to fix the underlying problem or wait until the affected soil loses it's excess moisture and returns to it's normal level.

What To Do?

You should give us a call, Foundation Repair is not our only business and we do not have to sell you a bunch of piers to stay in business. We will tell you the truth even if it means that we recommend that you do not need costly repairs.

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