5 Ways that Home­builders Cause Struc­tur­al Foun­da­tion Damage

Sep 26, 2013 • By Matthew Stock.

Struc­tur­al dam­age to the foun­da­tion is one of the worst things that can hap­pen to a house. Not only can the dam­age be time-con­sum­ing, incon­ve­nient and cost­ly to repair but it can eas­i­ly lead to oth­er dam­age in the struc­ture above, includ­ing inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or crack­ing, mis­aligned doors and win­dows, out-of-lev­el floors and, in extreme cas­es, sep­a­ra­tion of build­ing ele­ments such as chim­neys and additions.

Most foun­da­tion dam­age is caused by water and hap­pens over a peri­od of time as soil expands and con­tracts and lat­er­al pres­sure exerts dam­ag­ing force on the foun­da­tion walls. How­ev­er, some­times foun­da­tion dam­age occurs dur­ing the con­struc­tion process but is not dis­cov­ered until years lat­er when the orig­i­nal builder is long gone.

Most res­i­den­tial con­trac­tors and sub-con­trac­tors have the skills and equip­ment nec­es­sary to build a prop­er foun­da­tion and to not dam­age it dur­ing con­struc­tion. There are, how­ev­er, always exceptions.

How Home­builders Cause Struc­tur­al Foun­da­tion Damage

There are at least 5 ways that a res­i­den­tial con­trac­tor can inad­ver­tent­ly cause struc­tur­al foun­da­tion damage:

1. Improp­er Soil Prepa­ra­tion – The best prac­tice for exca­vat­ing and build­ing a foun­da­tion is to com­pact the soil on which the foun­da­tion will sit. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant when the foun­da­tion is to be built on fill, that is, soil that is trans­port­ed to the build­ing site rather than being native to the loca­tion. How­ev­er, even undis­turbed soil should be com­pact­ed before con­struc­tion. When a builder fails to do this it can lead to set­tling or drop­ping of foot­ings and foundations.

2. Shal­low or Under­sized Foot­ings – Foot­ings are hor­i­zon­tal con­crete pads that describe the perime­ter of the foun­da­tion and pro­vide sup­port for the ver­ti­cal foun­da­tion walls. Foot­ings must be a cer­tain depth, deter­mined by the frost line (lev­el to which the ground freezes in win­ter) of the area. If they are too shal­low, frost heave can dam­age the foun­da­tion. Also, foot­ings must be of a prop­er width and be ade­quate­ly sup­port­ed; fail­ure to do so can cause foun­da­tion walls to lean and tip.

3. Bad Back­fill – ​“Back­fill­ing” is the process of return­ing soil to the exca­va­tion to fill it in out­side the foun­da­tion walls. If a foun­da­tion is back­filled too high or if back­fill is done before the foun­da­tion has ful­ly cured, walls can buck­le, bow or tip or rotate inward. This can throw off the fram­ing of the struc­ture and lead to seri­ous prob­lems later.

4. Equip­ment Dam­age – Depend­ing on the size and type of home, there can be a num­ber of pieces of heavy equip­ment, includ­ing trucks, around the con­struc­tion site. This equip­ment can exert pres­sure on new­ly back­filled soil that then is trans­mit­ted to the foun­da­tion walls and can cause them to bow or move inward, par­tic­u­lar­ly if it occurs before above­ground con­struc­tion. Obvi­ous­ly, a truck or oth­er piece of heavy equip­ment direct­ly strik­ing a foun­da­tion wall can cause seri­ous damage.

5. Poor Con­struc­tion – It prob­a­bly goes with­out say­ing that a poor­ly built foun­da­tion is like­ly to suf­fer dam­age over time. Improp­er­ly laid con­crete blocks or oth­er mason­ry units, wrong con­crete mix for the appli­ca­tion, fail­ure to work out air pock­ets in con­crete or allow­ing it to cure too quick­ly can all lead to problems.

Of course, the own­er of an exist­ing home is unable to do any­thing about dam­age that may have occurred dur­ing con­struc­tion but those who decide to build a home should make sure they choose the right con­trac­tor to ensure that the foun­da­tion is built prop­er­ly and suf­fers no dam­age dur­ing construction.

Whether the struc­tur­al dam­age to a foun­da­tion is the fault of the builder, the freeze-thaw cycle or poor­ly man­aged ground water, the home­own­er needs a foun­da­tion repair pro­fes­sion­al he or she can trust to return the foun­da­tion to like-new con­di­tion. The foun­da­tion repair experts at U.S. Water­proof­ing make use of engi­neer­ing data and the lat­est in repair tech­niques to make sure foun­da­tions are sta­ble and sup­port­ive for years to come. Please ask us for a free con­sul­ta­tion.

Tags: structural foundation damage

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