Time to Start Paying Attention To Your Aging Foundation?

Posted by StablWall Structural Strengthening System on

Carbon Fiber Wall Repair

According to a recent American Housing Survey administered by the United States Census Bureau, the average age of a home in the US is approximately 38 years old.  Considering the life of the average concrete footing/foundation is considered a single lifetime by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB––source), 38 years is a significant portion of the life of a foundation!

It’s clear our homes are getting older, and the increased extremity of droughts and rains in recent years certainly hasn’t made things any easier on our foundations. Droughts can cause excess soil shifting, while excess moisture can put dangerous amounts of pressure on your foundation walls, causing them to bow inward. Homeowners are increasingly turning toward carbon fiber wall repair, steel beams, and wall anchors.

The good news is, there are often early warning signs that can point to a larger potential structural issues. The bad news is, many of us simply ignore them! Here are some things to be aware of:

  • New or Worsening Leaks From Walls or Floor
  • Vertical Hairline Cracks
  • Horizontal Cracking
  • Cracking of the Block Mortar Joints
  • Doors and Windows Out of Jamb
  • New Cracks in Drywall Throughout Home
  • Shifting/Separating Floor Slab

Avoid unwanted surprises, and develop a system of checking your foundation walls a few times a year. You may just save thousands of dollars and tons of stress and hassle!

Learn More About Carbon Fiber Wall Repair»

Potential Causes of a Failing Foundation

Posted by StablWall Structural Strengthening System on

Foundation wall repair  becomes more and more of an issue the older your foundation becomes, and with so many aging foundations in many areas throughout the U.S., it’s no surprise many homeowners are turning to more and more solutions for their failing foundations.

But what causes a foundation’s structure to fail over time? Water is actually an important piece in the puzzle when it comes to structural foundation damage. Below we will go over some scenarios in which the structural integrity of your home may be affected over time.

1. Addition of water to the surrounding soil. Soil expansion can be attributed many foundation problems, including cracking along the mortar joints, horizontal cracking, and walls bowing inward. These are considered potential serious structural risks, and should be addressed immediately.

2. Subtraction of water form the surrounding soil. In some cases, a home’s foundation can be damaged by over-settling due to water leaving the soil around the home. This over-settling can large cracks in the concrete floor slab, as well as large diagonal cracks near the corners of your foundation.

3. Poor construction. Sometimes, a home is built upon soil that was poorly compacted, setting the home up for continued foundation troubles for decades to come.   Poor wall construction methods and materials can also contribute to ongoing structural damage.

The earlier you can identify and resolve a structural foundation issue, the better. For the most part, the problem will only become worse, forcing you to pay for more expensive repair solutions or worse–a total wall rebuild. If you have any questions about your foundation wall repair options, feel free to contact us!

DIY Foundation Repair

Posted by StablWall Structural Strengthening System on

DIY Foundation Repair

For the past forty years or so severally bowing walls, from water damage, were stabilized by one of two methods. They were either dig out on the outside where the soil is, which was putting the pressure against the wall, was replaced with crushed stone (which can absorb the expansion of the adjacent soil by movement of the spaces between the stones), or by steel braces which were used inside the basement to reinforce the wall.

Since the advent of carbon fiber reinforced mesh, which have extremely high tensile strengths, new materials have become available to waterproofers which can be used along with traditional steel braces or in place of them to reinforce bowing walls.

This carbon fiber reinforced fabric is epoxied to the wall. They can be installed by a waterproofer, or the homeowner – in a kit form. This solution is less costly than traditional solutions. One of the advantages of such a system is that it is flush to the wall and can be painted over, thus is much less obtrusive in the room than steel beams.

With the StablWall Carbon Fiber foundation repair kit, you can have the carbon fiber sheets installed in less than a day in an easy seven step process.