As a homeowner, one of your biggest investments is your house. You put time and effort into maintaining its appearance and functionality. However, one thing that can often go unnoticed is your home’s foundation. However, any issues with your foundation can have serious consequences for the safety and stability of your house.
Slab foundations are commonly found in modern homes, but they too can experience problems over time due to various factors such as soil movement or poor construction. In this blog post, we will be delving into slab foundation repair costs, methods used by professionals, common signs of damage, and other important information.
What Causes Slab Foundation Issues?
The leading cause of slab foundation issues is a phenomenon called differential foundation settlement. If you are at all familiar with foundations, you have likely heard of foundation settlement, but there’s a chance that you don’t fully understand how it works.
Since your foundation rests on soil and depends on it for support, the foundation will move with it if the soil shifts or sinks. The soil below your foundation can shift for various reasons. One of the most common is poor soil compaction before the start of construction.
Remember that a small amount of uniform foundation settlement is normal. Uniform foundation settlement is often subtle, harmless, and quite common in the first year after construction. However, differential foundation settlement is damaging. This type of settlement involves uneven shifts that compromise the structural integrity of your slab foundation.
Common Signs of Foundation Issues
After differential settlement occurs, several issues can occur throughout your entire house, including jammed windows, sloping floors, and much more. Also, differential settlement is likely to cause your slab to become unlevel, cracked, and damaged to the point where it can no longer provide sufficient support for your home.
Top Slab Foundation Repair Method
Typically, installing foundation piers is the most reliable way to resolve problems caused by differential foundation settlement. Foundation piers come in two primary forms, push and helical, which serve the same purpose but have different installation methods.
Push piers require a hydraulic pump that your repair team will use to drive the piers directly into the ground. That team will continue to press the piers into the earth until they reach firm strata or bedrock. Once the piers reach an appropriate depth, the team will attach them to your foundation via a sturdy bracket.
Helical piers are slightly different. Helical piers are like giant screws that foundation pros twist into the ground until they are entirely embedded. Like push piers, helical piers attach to your foundation via a bracket.
Regardless of which type of piers you use, once the connection between your foundation, the piers, and the firm strata is formed, your foundation repair team can use them to raise your foundation as much as possible without causing damage.
After stabilizing your foundation, the final step is to repair any cracks the differential settlement may have caused. After patching those cracks, your foundation will look like it was not damaged.
How Much Does Slab Foundation Repair Cost?
The total cost of slab foundation repair will depend on several factors, including the extent of the damage, the number of piers required to fix it, and your geographical location.
With that said, we can provide a reasonable estimate of the average cost for this type of project. In most cases, push piers will cost about $1,000 per pier, while helical piers can be almost double that price. In addition to the piers, you’ll also need to cover the cost of any patching the repair team needs to perform to cover the cracks in your foundation.
Can You Repair a Slab Foundation On Your Own?
After learning about the cost of having a professional repair your home’s foundation, it can be tempting to think about DIY foundation repair. However, this is not a wise approach. If you lack experience, repairing a foundation is challenging and unsafe. Homeowners also don’t have access to the necessary equipment.
The best approach when dealing with slab foundation issues is to contact a professional repair team. Foundation repair experts can diagnose any problems present in your foundation while matching you to the ideal solution for your unique situation.
Leave Your Slab Foundation Repair to the Pros
As we just mentioned, repairing a foundation is not something the average homeowner can do independently. Instead, you must contact a foundation professional who can provide insightful advice and expert-level service.
Regional Foundation & Crawl Space Repair is the perfect team to call for any foundation-related issues in the Triad, Triangle, or anywhere in Eastern North Carolina. We have extensive experience repairing foundations and are happy to offer you an estimate at no cost.
