The slab that your house is sitting on is a massive concrete and rebar engineered structure. The average size house may contain 60 to 80 cubic yards of concrete. The piers that foundation repair companies use are comparable to pencils holding up your desk. These foundation piers do work to level your house but my point is – whatever is causing your foundation to move, don’t you think that same force will eventually move those piers? The answer is yes.
Sometimes the house is so far out of level that the appropriate fix is foundation piers. Many homes that are for sale have been vacant for a while without the normal maintenance being done on the property. It doesn’t take long for a small problem to become large if left unattended. One house we looked at last week had foundation piers installed sometime in the past but was 8.9 inches out of level the day we inspected it! That house needed a lot of piers just to bring it close to being level again. But the owners will also need to address the issues causing that movement or a few years down the line, they may need to have more expensive foundation piers installed again.
What are the signs of foundation movement? I think we have all seen the commercials on T.V. Some of the signs are cracks in the sheetrock, cracks in the brick veneer. Cracks in the concrete floor of the garage, cracks in the tile. Doors and windows that don’t operate properly also can be caused by shifting in the foundation. Be careful with doors and windows that don’t operate properly. You don’t want egress problems in an emergency.
