A home on a solid foundation seems simple and safe. But either too much or too little water in the soil can cause your home to move unevenly. This can create problems from windows or doors that don’t open to cracks in your interior walls or exterior brick, and even floors that slope. Clay soil swells when it’s wet. Too much water - a sudden or severe storm, or just a lot of rain in a short time, can cause uneven swelling that strains your foundation and puts uneven pressure up or down.
When it dries out, clay shrinks. When it stays dry long enough to shrink away from your foundation, causing a gap, your foundation can shift in response to that. The soil is also more vulnerable to rapid and uneven pockets of swelling when the rains return. You can see this kind of shrinkage if you skip watering a potted plant a bit longer than usual – the soil shrinks away from the pot, and it feels much lighter than when it has enough moisture.
Watch your slab for cracks, soil separation, standing puddles outside
and for any signs of shifting you notice inside. Contact Olshan online using the form to the right
for a complimentary consultation and recommended solutions, or phone
If you find a puddle, you know you have a problem in the basement. But a number of signs can help you pick up on water trouble before you’re in danger of taking in enough to ruin flooring, furniture, storage or appliances, or to develop dangerous electrical problems.
Besides sight, pay attention to smell - stale, moldy or musty odors are moisture signals. If your basement feels more humid than usual, suspect moisture.
Be alert to early warning signs by knowing the ways water is most likely to enter your basement:
- through floor cracks;
- from under the footer of your foundation - there are often tiny spaces in these areas where the walls meet the floor, since they are built separately;
- excess moisture accumulating in window wells or in puddles outside when your landscape doesn’t slope away from the house correctly.
- through cracks in walls and mortar joints if excess moisture builds up in the soil outside your home;
- over the footer
Olshan always provides complimentary inspections and recommendations for the best options to remediate water problems. We’d much rather do that early when the problem is small, rather than when real damage is underway. In the meantime, our website provides you more information and diagrams on the ways water can enter your home to help you be your own detective - make a quick foundation check, inside and out, part of your preventive maintenance at least once or twice a year - once each season is ideal. Call us toll free at 1-800-716-1463 if you would like to schedule a complimentary evaluation of your basement water problem.
Ask Olshan ManHave a question for Olshan Man? Email it to hometips@OlshanFoundation.com with Question in the subject line. If your question is selected for publication in the Hometips Newsletter, you will receive a $50 Visa Gift Card.
Q: Are Trees Helping My Foundation By Giving Shade?
A: Trees growing close enough to shade your home can help lower your home’s cooling bill and slow the drying of surface soil by blocking the sun.
However, that same tree is sending out roots to help hold itself up and to find nutrition. Some of those roots can find precious water under you home.
Whether your foundation is a crawl space type or a slab on the ground, the loss of water from the roots can allow the soil to shrink. Gravity usually wins in that situation and down comes your foundation.
Some trees actually have such large roots under buildings, they have grown enough to push aside anything in their way. If your foundation is directly above the root, the root can easily lift crawl space support stations as well as thin slab floors.
Bottom line, shade is nice. However, not allowing roots to grow under your home is nice too. Rule of thumb: plant your trees far enough away so the mature limbs will never reach the roofline. Otherwise seek advice from foundation and tree experts so you can take care to help hold off problems brought about by roots.
Call 1-800-716-1463 to be put in touch with a trained foundation specialist who can help you with your tree and foundation questions.
Landscape Your Yard For Less With Olshan
Get Up To $250 from Olshan Landscaping when you purchase new landscaping or drainage services.
Olshan Landscaping provides landscaping design and installation, pavers, sprinkler systems, drainage, outdoor lighting and more. Ask about a Complimentary Consultation to get started.
At Olshan landscaping, we do so much more than craft wonderful surroundings… We create unique living environments for the whole family to enjoy for years to come.
For beautiful landscaping, Nobody Knows the Territory like Olshan Landscaping.
Recent heavy rains in many areas have revealed drainage problems. Don’t let poor drainage around your home damage your landscape or even your foundation. Call Olshan today about our patent pending HydroGo drainage solution. The HydroGo system is flushable. This helps keep your system from clogging with dirt and debris that plague other drainage systems. Your HydroGo system will be performing at peak efficiency for years to come.
Call 800-716-1463 to schedule your complimentary consultation today.
Protect Your Foundation With The Hydrogo Drainage System
Get up to $250 from Olshan Foundation Solutions when you purchase a HydroGo drainage system for your home.
Don’t let poor drainage around your home damage your landscape or even your foundation. Call Olshan Foundation Solutions today about our patent pending HydroGo drainage solution. The HydroGo system is flushable. This helps keep your system from clogging with dirt and debris that plague other drainage systems. Your HydroGo system will be performing at peak efficiency for years to come.
Call 800-716-1463 today to schedule a complimentary, no obligation inspection to see if your home can benefit from Olshan’s HydroGo drainage system.
If you see cracks in your brickwork, walls, around doors, windows, ceilings or sloping floors, then you may have foundation problems. These symptoms are not going to improve. In fact, they may get worse.
There are many solutions. But with outdated techniques like concrete pads, drilled piers, helical piers and driven steel piers or simple pressed pilings, you won’t know if it worked until years later.
Olshan offers results you can see in a few days. With the deepest, strongest, most reliable foundation repair available for your home, only the Cable Lock™ Plus System can do all this:
- Provides better support by installing under the footer.
- Reaches greater depths to secure support by load bearing soils.
- Stabilizes top to bottom to anchor cable and control horizontal movement.
- Delivers easily with 1-3 day installation.
- Protects your investment with a Lifetime Transferable Warranty.
With Cable Lock™ Plus, you can stop worrying and start protecting your home. We’ll provide a free inspection, explain our process and offer the right options—to stop cracks in their tracks.
Call XXX-XXX-XXXX to schedule your FREE inspection.
Once water starts seeping in—through cracks in the basement floor, bleeding walls or sweating window sills—problems accumulate fast. Mold, poor air quality, electrical and structural damage can put your family at risk and devalue your home.
Old technology temporarily seals cracks and single-channel designs clog and back up easily. Olshan can help stop the water.
Only Olshan’s Water Lock™ Plus dual-channel technology waterproofs basements permanently and reclaims valuable living space by:
- Providing more entry points to capture more water
- Guaranteeing a no-clog system
- Using sturdy pipes that can’t be crushed
- Allowing large volumes of water with dual-channel construction
- Protecting with Lifetime Transferable Warranty and WorryFree™ Maintenance Program.
With Water Lock™ Plus Stop you can stop worrying about a flooded basement, damaged property and wasted living space. We’ll provide a free inspection, explain our process and offer the right options—to stop cracks in their tracks.
Call XXX-XXX-XXXX to schedule your FREE inspection.
Standing water around your home kills grass and plants, ruins landscaping, breeds mosquitoes, termites and mold. In fact, over-saturated soil can cause structural damage and instability—all eroding your home equity.
Old-fashioned drainage trenches, flimsy plastic basins and pipes can’t handle flowing rainwater and will eventually clog. Olshan’s patent pending HydroGo system offers the best solution to control drainage problems.
Olshan’s HydroGo™ Drainage System uses our one-of-a-kind flushable technology to remove excess water, improve foundation performance and help prevent foundation cracks. Only HydroGo™ can:
- Break through as the peak industry innovation in 30 years.
- Remain fully functional with our annual flush service.
- Allow maximum water flow and eliminate clogging.
- Outperform gravel ditches and corrugated plastic pipe.
- Protect you with a 10-year, WorryFree™ Inspection and Maintenance Program
HydroGo™ provides a one-of-a-kind solution.We’ll provide a free inspection, explain our process and offer the right options to solve all your drainage problems.
Call XXX-XXX-XXXX to schedule your FREE inspection.
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