Signs Your Foundation Needs Repairs During Drought Season

Our Kansas City weather has been particularly hot and dry. You already know what this means for your lawn, but you may be overlooking another area of your home that can be affected by drought: your foundation. 

A drought can damage a home’s or business’ foundation as significantly as the wet season can, but, fortunately, there are some important signs to help you to be proactive and informed about whether or not you need basement foundation repair that was caused by this weather.

Here are PierMagic’s four signs that your foundation needs repair as a result of the drought season.

The First Sign that Foundation Repair is Needed: Look for Cracks

Cracks in the basement wall are the first sign that drought damage has occurred. If you are noticing cracks when you’re in your basement, you should definitely start thinking about your foundation. 

When soil dries, it tends to shrink back from the basement wall. The weight of your home then pushes down into these gaps, and foundation cracks begin to form. It is also important to note that a sudden bout of rain doesn’t reverse this process. When the soil expands again rapidly it presses against the home, which also puts stress on the foundation, causing cracks as well. When your foundation is stressed it is unable to support the rest of the home, causing further damage.

The Second Sign: Uneven Floors, and How to Know For Sure

The flooring in your basement is also susceptible to the changing soil conditions caused by drought. As soil dries out, its shape changes on the sides as well as beneath the home, which can lead to a sloping floor. 

You may have gone into your basement and noticed that something is off about your flooring. Sometimes, however, the sloping is only somewhat visible to the naked eye, so you can use a level to determine the angle of the slope. Even slight sloping, when combined with the other signs we provide here, can be an indicator that the dry season is affecting your home’s foundation. 

If you want to know if there’s a problem for sure, get a free inspection from a trustworthy foundation repair expert in Kansas City who can help determine the extent of your floor’s damage, and what kinds of home foundation repair would be beneficial in your case. Foundation repair solutions are different for every home, so you want to go with a company who will give you the best options based on your particular needs.

It is important to remember, too, that a sloping floor does not occur in isolation from other foundation problems. A professional can help you identify how this slope is affecting other key elements of a strong structure, which we will explore with this next, perhaps unexpected, warning sign. 

Third Sign: Sticking Doors and Windows, and Cracks Around Their Frames

As the floor slopes, the frames around doors and windows on the upper floors of the home can shift as well. You may have noticed that doors and windows stick in your home, but you’ve googled it, and assumed that it is an issue with that particular door or window not being set correctly. This may not be the case.

As the seasons change, and the soil moves, this causes the foundation of the home to settle unevenly. When combined with our other warning signs above, such as cracks, and uneven floors or walls, that door or window that is suddenly sticking should make your repair list. Don’t write this off as one of your home’s quirks. 

Additionally, cracks that appear around the frames of doors and windows should be cause for concern, and for similar reasons. As the shrinking soil causes the foundation to shift, a chain reaction occurs in other parts of the house’s structure. This kind of cracking is not exclusively a cosmetic issue, nor an issue with craftsmanship. The foundation’s movement is the issue here, and that’s where an inspection should begin.

Fourth Sign: Have You Seen Water in the Past? Drought Could Be the Culprit

If you’ve noticed water in your basement during a rainstorm, it is certainly important to consider the factors that are causing it to come into the home.

Drought - the complete opposite of wet weather - is a potential culprit even if that doesn’t seem logical. As mentioned in our earlier warning signs, drought can leave voids when soil shrinks away from the home. These voids allow water then fills those spaces, and it finds its way in through cracks in the foundation.

Drought season is a time to be proactive about your basement’s foundation before the wet weather arrives again and exacerbates issues caused by dry soil. 

What To Do With These Signs of Drought Damage, and How Foundation Repair Experts Can Help

When cracks in the basement walls, sloping floors, sticking doors and windows, and water in the basement are present in a home, this is great cause for concern. These are all warning signs that foundation repair is needed.

Each of these warning signs should be looked at as a potential problem on their own as well, because each poses an individual risks to your property’s value.

You can point out these warning signs when our PierMagic team arrives, and we’ll make a professional assessment based on our thorough, free inspection of your basement’s foundation. 

We can explain our innovative services, which have become best practices in the concrete foundation repair industry. We will walk you through each step of our process to make sure your home is taken care of in all seasons, and remains standing tall and strong. 

Reaching out for foundation repair in Kansas City is as simple as this: get in touch with PierMagic at (816) 765-4800 or send us a message online.