For the houses that were outside tolerances, we suggested where the foundation piers should be placed on our AutoCAD drawing.  But just as important as pier placement was the action we recommended they take to address the causes of the movement to reduce the possibility of future movement.  The slab is much more massive than the piers and whatever moved the slab will, over time, affect the piers.  Therefore it is very important to address the causes of the foundation movement so the money you are paying for the installation of expensive foundation piers will not be wasted.

One action all property owners should take after foundation piers are installed is to have a qualified plumber check out the plumbing system of your home.  When piers are installed, the house is lifted.  The pipes under the house are in the soil and when the house is lifted, the pipes will not stretch – they can crack or break and you now might have a new plumbing problem that will cause more damage to the foundation and to the new piers that were just installed.

Piers being installed

Foundation piers are not “install & forget”.  You have spent good money to fix a foundation problem, always take those actions to address the causes of the foundation distress and follow up with a plumbing inspection to insure you have not created a new problem.

If you have a crack in the sheetrock or brick of at least 1/8 inch in width, you are approaching the time when you should be seeking a professional.  Or if you have a separation in the slab of 1/16 inch of either vertical or horizontal movement, then you may want to give us a call.

Crack in the slab

If a door or window sticks, this is a problem, for safety reasons you want to be able to have unrestricted egress in an emergency.  Keep the doors and windows in good operating conditions at all times.  If you have adjusted them and they seem to get out of alignment soon after, your foundation may be continuing to move.  Again, it might be an indication that you should get a professional to look at the foundation to determine what might be moving the slab.

Another situation that we can help our clients is when they have had an inspector tell them that they see signs of foundation movement.  Real estate inspectors have gone through a lot of training but most do not have the specialized instruments that we have to be able to provide a detailed analysis of the foundation to determine if the foundation is within industry tolerances for residential construction.

Not every house will need a foundation evaluation, but if you want one for your house, give us a call, we will be happy to help you.

From this drawing, you can see where the high and low areas of your house are.  We use these readings to do an analysis to determine if the tilt of the structure is within industry tolerances for residential construction. 

If the house is within tolerances, our report will focus on some of the contributing causes of the foundation movement.  Once we talk about the causes, then we discuss what the homeowner can do to address these causes.  Last year, only about 27% of our customers needed expensive foundation piers.

If the house is outside tolerances we will still talk about the causes and actions the homeowner can take to address these causes but we will also locate where underpinning (foundation piers) should be located.  We will put these recommended location of piers on our drawing.  That way, you are able to take this drawing around to several foundation repair companies to get bids on the pier installation.

If you need piers or not, please keep our AutoCAD drawing in a safe place with your other important papers.  This drawing will become your home’s baseline elevation readings.  If a few years down the road you suspect the foundation has moved again, we (or another company) can take new elevation readings and compare the new reading with the baseline readings we took for you.  You will then be able see very clearly where the foundation has moved and by how much.  Great information when you are trying to locate the cause(s) of the movement.

Why, if the homeowner addressed the causes of the foundation movement the first time, would the foundation start moving again?  Great question.  Maybe we were in a drought situation the first time we took readings and later the drought ended and it seemed like it was raining everyday.  Or maybe a plumbing drain broke and created a large void under the slab which the house started to settleing into.  There are many reasons the foundation will move over time.  Keeping a record of that movement is good idea.

Put together a short resume and give us a call at 832-858-0867 to arrange a time for an interview.

No, it is usually not a sign of a structural problem with the home’s foundation.  It is caused by the thermo-expansion of the brick and that expansion of the brick, cracks the corner of the foundation.

First, let’s step back and let me explain what is behind this issue.  Before the brick is layed on the brick ledge during the construction of the home, the cornice crew will put an 18 inch strip of plastic on top of the brick ledge and it will extend up the wall about 12 inches.  This will be placed around the house everyplace the brick will touch the slab.  This piece of plastic has a number of different purposes but the role it plays here, the brick and mortar is placed on top of the plastic so the mortar doesn’t adhere to the slab.  The weight of the brick is bearing on the slab but the plastic doesn’t allow the mortar to adhere to the slab.

Therefore, during the day, as the sun heats up the brick, the brick will start to expand.  Since the mortar isn’t sticking to the slab, the brick and mortar are free to slide over the plastic as the brick expands because the sun is warming it.  At night the reverse happens, the brick will contract slightly as it cools.  Again as the brick contracts, it will slide over the plastic.

O.K., if the brick is sliding on the plastic and not adhereing to the slab, what is causing the corner of the foundation to crack?

As the house is being built, the superintendent in charge of that house will ask the brick mason to trim off any plastic that is sticking out from under the brick after the brick mason finishes bricking the house.  (Nobody likes to see an ugly strip of black plastic sticking out from between the brick and the slab.)  This is a job that is a little bit difficult and after having to do that on a few houses, the brick mason will find an easier way!  One of the shortcut taken by some is to cut the plastic short before the brick and mortar is layed.  This will save the bricklayers from having to do it later and cutting it before is much easier.  BUT, one of the purposes of the plastic is to keep the mortar from adhereing to the slab.  Now that it has been trimmed back a little bit, some of the mortar will be able to adhere to the slab.  As the brick is heated up during the day, it expands somewhat and the weak point is at the end of the wall – the corner.  A small crack will develope over repeated heating and cooling cycles.

Again, this small crack is usually not structurally significant and generally nothing to worry about.  About the only times that this situation needs action taken might be if the corner of the slab drops off and the brick that was being supported is now left unsupported and the brick starts to move downward.

corner crack of a foundation

In the newsletter we have one or two short articles on different subjects, maintenance tips and a case study.  We also get a guest expert from time to time to contribute an article.

It is easy to sign up, just go to our website’s homepage and on the upper right hand corner there is a sign-up box.

In the future, we will publish some of our newsletters on a page of our website so you will be able to see some of our back issues.  Also, as soon as I figure out how to make it happen, comments will be published on the blog page.  At present, I do see all the nice comments you are sending in, thank you.  If you do have suggestions for future blogs or articles in the newsletter, please let me know.

Thank you.

There are a lot of clays in the soil in this part of Texas.  As the moisture content of the soil changes, the clays in the soil will expand as water is added, and the clays in the soil contract as it dries out.  Therefore, the key to keeping the houses from moving so much is to keep the moisture content of the soil consistent around the perimeter of the house.

This can be done in a variety of ways.  An automatic sprinkler system is usually the easiest.  If it is good working condition, you may need only to adjust it slightly as the amount of rainfall you get changes.

Another method that I have used for many years is a sprinkler on the end of a hose and we move it around the house to get all parts properly watered.  This is a little more time consuming plus I never get an even amount of water to all parts of the yard.

Another very useful method is the use of a soaker hose.  Putting a timer on it makes it a little bit easier and it does put out a even flow of water around the perimeter of the house.  I still have to use a sprinkler at the end of a hose for the other areas like near trees that require much more water that just a little drip from the soaker hose.  I will talk about trees and some of the water requirements in future blogs.

But since we talked about soaker hoses, I want to talk about what not to do because you can cause more problems than you solve and you may not even know that you are causeing harm to your house!!!

You should keep your soaker hose about 12 inches to 18 inches away from the perimeter of your house.  You may have noticed a little gap between the soil and your home’s foundation if the soil around your house is very dry.  Never put your soaker hose in this little gap.  If a lot of water goes down this space between the foundation and the soil, the ground could get so much water the soil will start losing it’s load bearing capacity and you can increase the rate of settling of your house, causing more cracks showing up, doors sticking, etc.

We are trying to pervent the settlement of your home, so one way is to keep the soaker hose 12 to 18 inches away from the perimeter of the foundation.  I have also read a report saying that as much as 50% of the water coming out of a soaker hose will evaporate on a hot or windy day.  They suggested you place the soaker hose below the mulch in your flower beds.  If it is in the grassy area that needs to be mowed, they suggested placing it in a perforated pipe and putting it just below the surface of the soil.

To sum up, keep the moisture content of the soil consistent around the perimeter of your home, and you will reduce the movement of the foundation and your home.

Why does this affect the homes here?  There is a large amount of clays in the soil.  When the clays dry out, the soil will contract or shrink.  When it rains, the water will re-hydrate the clays in the soil and they will swell or expand.  As the soils contract or expands, the structures resting on the ground will move up or down somewhat with that changing soil. 

In a normal year, this movement isn’t very noticable.  But we have not been in a normal year, it has been very dry and if we are not doing anything to keep the moisture content of the soil consistent around the perimeter of the house, our houses will start moving.  We will see that movement showing up in various places around the house like sticking doors and windows, cracks in the tile, brick, or sheetrock.  We may see cracks in the garage floor, joints in the trim work opening up, or a feeling that we are walking up-hill or down-hill while we are walking across a room.

In my next blog, we will talk about what the average homeowner can do to address this issue.

I guess anybody can if they want to.  It is a free country, isn’t it?  It is like asking the question, can people drive over the speed limit down the street in a car?  People do it all the time.

About two and a half years ago the Texas legislature passed a bill saying, in part, that anytime a foundation is designed, repaired, etc., an engineer must sign off on it.  I believe it was HB 2649.

The next time you have foundation problems and get that ‘free’ inspection from a guy operating out of a truck, ask him if the repair drawing will be signed off by an engineer.  There are many foundation repair companies out there that have never heard of this.  Their price may be well below their competition and now you know one of the reasons why they are.

Robin did a great job of taking some of my thoughts and transforming them into an impressive group of pages.  She also spent extra time in walking me through the behind-the-scenes interworkings of what they created.

Charlie in tech support was also great.  Everytime I sent in a request, before I knew it, it was already handled.

A special thank you to Bill Johnson.  He taught classes in SEO and because of his teaching skill and knowledge of the subject, a good bit of that information sunk into my thick head.  He also suggested other classes taught at the U of H in the evenings that complemented what he was teaching.  The classes from UH was free which is just about what I can afford and they put out a tremendous amount of information to help growing businesses.  In addition, he suggested I talk to the people from SEO411.com and Beth who runs everything there.

Thanks again!