A lot goes into owning a home. From maintaining a yard and other outdoor home fixtures such as roofs, driveways, and sidewalks to indoor fixtures, it can be a lot to handle for someone new to owning a home. Fortunately, most aspects of a home are simple to care for and even fix if needed. But what about the foundation of a home? What happens when a home experiences foundation failure? What is foundation failure?
Foundation failure is when the soil beneath a home becomes unstable. Oftentimes, this happens over time. However, certain factors such as damage from the elements can speed up the foundation failure process. Other reasons why foundations fail include evaporation, transpiration, drainage issues, and plumbing leaks. For starters, when it comes to evaporation, dry temperatures cause soil to shrink and draw away from a home foundation, leading to unstable soil. If a home has plumbing leaks, moisture may be seeping into the soil under and around a home, causing pressure to build up around the foundations. Additionally, drainage issues may also cause moisture to collect beneath a home, causing the soil to expand and even rupture the foundation.
Depending where a home resides, there may be other factors that may result in foundation failure. For example, San Antonio, Texas is a dryer, warmer city compared to others. On top of that, there are more than 60 different soil types in the state and not every type is suitable for constructing homes, especially homes with basements. Because of this, many homes in Texas have slab foundations instead of basements in order to help protect the integrity and strength of any given home. By taking other precautions, such as ensuring a home’s subfloor in a beam and pier foundation is at least a half inch plywood, builders can help ensure the foundation of a home remains strong.
Thinking about building a new home in Texas? You may want to conduct a soil analysis. Perhaps you have a home but are concerned about the foundation. Fortunately, there are a variety of san antonio foundation repair shops, including commercial foundation repair services.
