5 Reasons to have your Home's Foundation Repaired

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1. Cracks in walls allow water to seep in to sunken areas & basements

   
   
• can ruin furniture in sunken areas
• can also damage carpeting and flooring
• can cause mold to form, leading to health problems
• As a child our house outside of Houston, Texas, had a sunken living room which was built about 3 feet below ground level. Every time we had considerable rain (several times per year in Houston), our sunken living room filled with dirty water, saturating our furniture. The problems worsened year after year, until we hired a foundation repair company to come out and repair our foundation. After the repairs, water seepage was effectively stopped.
• Is your home experiencing seepage? Read this article for a diy guide to identifying water seepage

2. The condition of your foundation directly affects the price of your home and oftentimes affects the status of your home's eligibility for a loan from potenial home buyers.

• "Foundation cracks and settlement problems are viewed as serious defect to a home. Most homeowners realize this and simply will not purchase a home unless proper repairs are made. In addition, many lending venues (FHA,VA,Conventional) simply will not lend on a home with these defects." source: www.repairfoundation.net

• The FHA may categorize your house as a "Fixer-Upper" requiring the purchaser to get a special type of loan, subsequently lowering the value of the house.
• The VA has special guidelines pertaining to foundation repair this example details guidelines for a loan term of 30 years on a manufactured home: 

  "To be eligible for a VA loan term of 30 years, a manufactured home must be
  

• classified and taxed as real property
  

• properly affixed to a permanent foundation (Section 12.10)

• substantially conform with VA MPRs (Chapter 12), and 

• conform with applicable building code and zoning requirements for real estate."

  For more information on the VA and foundations download this PDF (over 600 pages) and search for the term foundation

3. The longer one waits to repair a foundation, the more repair will be needed in the future

• Logically, the more a foundation shifts the larger the cracks in walls and flooring become, thus the more the costs of repairing your house increase. Stop foundation problems early to avoid future headaches.
• Typical repair costs for repairing cracks

4. 25% of homes across the United States will experience foundation shifting, a higher percentage can be expected in Texas due to the high concentration of expansive soil

• "Expansive soils are present throughout the world and are known in every US state. Every year they cause billions of dollars in damage. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that 1/4 of all homes in the United States have some damage caused by expansive soils. In a typical year in the United States they cause a greater financial loss to property owners than earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined.
  
  Even though expansive soils cause enormous amounts of damage most people have never heard of them. This is because their damage is done slowly and can not be attributed to a specific event. The damage done by expansive soils is then attributed to poor construction practices or a misconception that all buildings experience this type of damage as they age."

  source - geology.com

5. Repairing your foundation and the damage associated with it can help you lower energy costs.

   After reading Superior's 10 signs of Foundation Problems it is easy to see how repairing shifted windows and cracks in a structure can affect energy costs.
• Percentage of energy lost from different areas of a home:

  "Heat is lost to infiltration and air loss by over 3 times the amount it is lost due to ceilings. These categories generally stack up this way in terms of % heat loss in a home:
  

• Infiltration / Air Leakage: 35%
  

• Windows and Doors: 18%-20%
  

• Floors and Below Grade Space: 15%-18%
  

• Walls: 12%-14%
  

• Ceilings: 10%"

  source: About.com
• Perform an Energy Audit on your home to determine how much energy you are wasting