Protect your home foundation from shifting and cracking
Winnipeg home owners love their basement rec-rooms. But several problems, including flooding basements, cracking and shifting foundations are always a concern. Normally, our main concern is during wet weather, when sump pumps can become overwhelmed by the water, and tiny cracks in concrete basement walls allow water to seep into our prized man-caves and game rooms.
cracking and shifting foundations
However, there are several causes of shifting and cracking foundation walls:
Extended drought causes foundations issues
Extended dry periods, such as what we're experiencing this summer (2021), will cause the ground to dry up and crack, shifting soil all along your foundation walls.
Severe droughts can affect soil moisture levels even deep into the ground. If it goes deep enough, and affects the clay around the foundation footings, the impact can be severe.
Drying clay will shrink, causing vacant pockets around and underneath the footings. This will increase the chances of the footings shifting or dropping.
Prevention: Water your foundation on a regular basis. When watering your lawn, make sure your sprinklers work right up to the basement walls, to keep the soil nice and moist.
While it is commonly believed that, if a house is beyond a certain age, it will have ‘settled as far as it's gonna settle', I know of cases where houses have shifted after 30 years of relative stability.
Sudden changes in soil moisture levels
I read once that a fully grown birch cluster can take 8 bath-tubs full of water out of the soil every single day. If you have several large trees close to your home, and suddenly remove them, the moisture levels around your home will suddenly change. This can affect homefoundations, and can cause severe shifting and settling.
Sudden, or even gradual changes in soil moisture are quite often the culprit of these issues with foundations.
Tree roots effect foundations
Tree, planted too close to foundations, can over time develop roots that are big enough to crack concrete. As prevention, don't plant trees or even large shrubs too close to the house. However, if your home already has several large trees around it, don't be too hasty in removing them, because this can cause another, equally severe issue…
Bo Kauffmann is a residential real estate agent with over 18 yrs experience in helping buyers and sellers achieve their goals. Inducted into the REMAX Hall of Fame in 2010 and receiving the REMAX Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, Bo has sold over 500 houses and condos in the Greater Winnipeg market. He is an accredited buyer representative (A.B.R.) and a Luxury Home Marketing Specialist. Bo provides exceptional service to First-Time Home-Buyers, Seniors looking to downsize and Home Sellers of all ages. He can be reached easily By E-Mail or call/text him Call/Text Here Our Latest Web-Stories Never miss an episode of our real estate podcast. Install our FREE Podcast App available on iOS and Android. For your Apple Devices, click here to install our iOS App. For your Android Devices, click here to install our Android App. Check my videos on Youtube
To provide the best experiences, we and our partners use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us and our partners to process personal data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site and show (non-) personalized ads. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Click below to consent to the above or make granular choices. Your choices will be applied to this site only. You can change your settings at any time, including withdrawing your consent, by using the toggles on the Cookie Policy, or by clicking on the manage consent button at the bottom of the screen.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
