Foun­da­tion Wall Crack

Foun­da­tion wall cracks are the most com­mon source of seep­age in poured con­crete foun­da­tions. They are caused most fre­quent­ly by stress, set­tling or shrink­age dur­ing the concrete’s cur­ing process.

In gen­er­al, most cracks are hair­line (less than 1÷8” wide) and run ver­ti­cal­ly or diag­o­nal­ly from the top of the foun­da­tion wall down to the bot­tom. They also go all the way through the wall which is why they leak. In the event your foun­da­tion walls are cov­ered by pan­el­ing or dry­wall, our Base­ment Advi­sor can usu­al­ly locate the crack(s) on the exte­ri­or if the top of the foun­da­tion wall is exposed above the ground level.

We offer crack repair solu­tions from both the exte­ri­or and inte­ri­or. Our Base­ment Advi­sor will rec­om­mend the best method of repair based on site conditions.

Most cracks do not pose struc­tur­al con­cerns. The ones that do tend to be wider than 1÷8”, run hor­i­zon­tal­ly or stair step into the mor­tar of the above grade exte­ri­or brick­work. Oth­er com­mon signs include a buck­led / bowed foun­da­tion wall (see Wall Brac­ing), a sink­ing foun­da­tion, dry­wall cracks and upstairs doors and win­dows that tend to stick or not close easily.

The words might sound alarm­ing to a home­own­er, but at U.S. Water­proof­ing foun­da­tion crack repairs are pain­less and min­i­mal­ly inva­sive. Foun­da­tion cracks are with­out ques­tion the most com­mon source of seep­age in a base­ment or crawl space. There are sev­er­al rea­sons why a foun­da­tion can crack. 

Foun­da­tion’s are con­struct­ed using con­crete from a ready mix truck. As con­crete cures and los­es mois­ture, it shrinks. 

The weight of a house sits on the foun­da­tion. Due to rain­fall (and droughts) the earth beneath the foun­da­tion expands (and shrinks), which caus­es the foun­da­tion to settle. 

Exces­sive ground­wa­ter from rain or snowmelt sat­u­rat­ing the soil next to the foun­da­tion walls also cre­ate stress to the point where the foun­da­tion walls can crack. 

When are cracks in base­ment walls a problem?

Most cracks are minis­cule and run ver­ti­cal­ly or diag­o­nal­ly from the top of the foun­da­tion wall down to the bot­tom. For most home­own­ers, cracks are a nui­sance as they can cre­ate base­ment and crawl space seep­age. Seep­age can dam­age your belong­ings and fin­ish­es. It can also cre­ate an unhealthy liv­ing environment. 

It’s impor­tant for a home­own­er to know that cracks wider than ¹⁄₈ of an inch can sug­gest a struc­tur­al issue. Hor­i­zon­tal cracks are anoth­er tell­tale sign of a struc­tur­al prob­lem. Oth­er signs of struc­tur­al con­cern include a buck­led or bowed foun­da­tion wall, a sink­ing foun­da­tion, dry­wall cracks on the first and sec­ond floors, and upstairs doors and win­dows that pre­vi­ous­ly opened and closed eas­i­ly but now do not. 

How does U.S Water­proof­ing repair foun­da­tion cracks?

If you have a crack in a foun­da­tion wall, this can be repaired from the inte­ri­or or exte­ri­or, depend­ing on your base­ment. If your base­ment is unfin­ished (no dry­wall or pan­el­ing) and the crack is exposed on the inte­ri­or, we’ll like­ly rec­om­mend an inside fix using our Epoxy/​Urethane Injec­tion process. This involves seal­ing the crack on its inside face with an epoxy paste and inject­ing an expand­ing ure­thane resin that fills the crack to the out­side soil. 

If the crack is obstruct­ed by pan­el­ing or dry­wall, we can still do our work from the inside. In these sit­u­a­tions, we remove the dry­wall (and fram­ing when nec­es­sary), do the repair, and then put back back what we removed.

In some instances, it’s more desir­able to approach the prob­lem on the exte­ri­or. To do that, we dig a small hole at the crack loca­tion and fill it with sodi­um ben­tonite, which is a gran­u­lar clay which expands to form a tight­ly sealed bar­ri­er. With this Wall-Clay process, water can’t pen­e­trate the foun­da­tion wall and your base­ment stays dry. 

What­ev­er the repair calls for, we stand behind our work with a trans­fer­able life­time war­ran­ty for the home­own­er. And when you have been in busi­ness as long as we have (and fixed more cracks that just about any­one else in the coun­try!), life­time real­ly means some­thing! If you want peace of mind and your cracks per­ma­nent­ly sealed, sched­ule a free con­sul­ta­tion online today.