Freezing, Thawing, and the Ground: A Foundation Story

When winter hits the scene foundations tremble. The constant cold weather freezes the water in the ground, expanding it and then when weather heats up it retracts the ground again. This push and pulls the soil around the foundation. When you live in an area, like most of NC, where temperatures change rapidly it can really take a toll on your home’s foundation walls through constant freezing and thawing of the ground around the foundation.

Whenever the ground outside the home and next to the basement or crawl space walls are expanding and retracting it causes the soil to hollow out leaving voids or it pushes the walls inward and bows them. This puts the structural integrity of your home into question. Every cycle of freezing and thawing adds to the potential damage.

Now, usually this sort of affect is a long-term issue and only becomes an immediate issue whenever the temperature swings are large. However, increased rainfall can complicate these issues drastically. And unfortunately stopping this sort of thing is not possible.

With that being said, there are ways to protect your foundation walls. The first thing to do would be to inspect your basement or crawl space walls. If there is visible sign of water leakage, cracking, or mortar displacement then there may be a problem in the making. Of course, the most noticeable issues would be turning blocks or bowing walls.

If any of those things are occurring to your walls, then it’s time to get them inspected. There are many wall stabilizations options out there and the risks of a collapsing wall, if you are experiencing a symptom, are too great to not consider options.

We have helped many homeowners with their foundation walls and the best jobs are always whenever a homeowner is looking for a proactive solution. Every now and then we get a call where the client has waited too long and is needing an emergency fix to their basement wall. The issue with basement problems are that time is usually not going to heal it.

If you believe your basement or crawl space wall needs an inspection, we provide free inspections to assess what, if any, solution is needed to prevent real damage to your home. Spring thawing doesn’t have to be a time of the year where you’re scared of structural damage so let us handle it for you.