Is Your Ballard Basement Wet? Cracks in Your Concrete? Foundation Issues?

Find help to take care of any foundation or concrete problem you are experiencing.

From a wet basement to a sunken concrete slab to cracks in your basement floor or walls, someone can help.

If you suspect you are having a problem in one of these areas, you should make a quick call and talk it over.

They are happy to talk about it on the phone. And maybe even arrange a time to swing by your house and take a closer look.

Do You Have a Problem?

It can be difficult to tell if you have a real problem with your King County home or not.

Some issues are subtle and need an experienced contractor to give an opinion. Other problems are more obvious. And problems do turn up at both old and new houses.

Here Are 14 Foundation Problem Signs To Look For

1. A wet crawlspace or pooling of water near your house after a rain
2. Your basement is damp or humid and has a bad musty smell
3. Windows or doors that stick to their frames or close hard
4. Gaps between your wall and ceiling or your wall and floor
5. A significant crack in a concrete basement floor or foundation
6. A gap or any separation between exterior walls or a wall and chimney
7. Separated or cracked interior molding, typically crown molding or door molding
8. Multiple cracks in solid surface interior or exterior walls
9. Water in your basement after a rain
10. Cracks in exterior or interior brick or mortar walls
11. Uneven or sloping interior floors
12. Vertical cracks in sheet rock, sometimes noticed between a door frame and the ceiling
13. Floors that look weak, warped or uneven, or floor tiles that are loose or broke
14. Gaps around doors, especially exterior doors and garage doors.

These Problems Seem Hard to Fix

Major structural problems are hard to fix, but they can be done.

Homeowners sometimes think their problem is unfixable, or it will cost a small fortune to fix, but that isn’t necessarily true.

A complex foundation job will need an experienced contractor, with the right crew and equipment in order to get it done right. Getting under a house, raising it up and making it level without disturbing the structural integrity of the house is not for the inexperienced.

Ballard Basement Waterproofing Service

If you get water in your basement after a heavy rain, they can come up with a solution to stop it from happening. No one needs a wet basement.

In order to waterproof your home, they may work inside your basement, focus just on the soil and landscaping around your home, or work on a combination of the two.

Sometimes, just re-grading the property, installing gutters and/or putting in an outside drain can remedy the problem without needing to tackle the actual basement walls at all.

Ballard Slab Lifting Services

If you notice that a part of your concrete sidewalk, driveway, or garage floor has sunken, they can usually raise it back up to where it is supposed to be. This process is often called either slab jacking or mud jacking.

Slab jacking is a pretty cool process. It involves forcing a thick mud-like substance under the section of concrete that has sunken down.

The volume of this mud underneath the concrete slowly forces the slab up to the height it originally was at.

Sometimes homeowners want slab jacking done just in order to improve the appearance of their property, but concrete slab lifting can reduce accidents and trips from having uneven sections and it can cut down on other issues, such as improper drainage, as well. Almost all jobs are completed in one morning or afternoon.

Why Do These Problems Happen?

Well, all around and underneath your house, the soil can move a little bit from time to time. Moisture, temperature and a few other minor factors can cause the soil to contract or expand. This movement, even though it can be small, can affect whatever is on top of it, from a structure to a driveway or other solid surface.

So you might not be able to control the weather or the soil makeup here in Seattle, there are some factors you can control.

First, your property should be graded to move rain water away from your house. Second, you need a decent rain gutter system to prevent the rain that hits your house from collecting around it.

One big factor that a homeowner can’t change is the makeup of the soil their house sits on. Soils are all different. Some soils are more absorbent than others are. The more absorbent the soil, the more water it captures and the more it can expand when it gets wet. That isn’t good.

Luckily, most King County soil is not too absorbent.

Another factor, although it usually isn’t as common, is having a large tree too close to your house. A large tree can have extensive roots that reach well under your house. Those roots can draw all the moisture out of your soil during extended dry periods and even exert physical pressure on your foundation as well.

Over time, various stress factors on your house may eventually cause a small crack or two to occur.

And a small crack can lead to a bigger crack. Big cracks can let in moisture and it just gets worse from there.

Is It Okay To Wait on an Inspection?

If you think you may have a problem, you should get it looked at. It could be that what you’re worried about isn’t anything major. But if you get it inspected, at least you’ll know for sure.

You might hope that your property issue just goes away on its own, but it won’t. It won’t get better over time.

Small cracks will turn into bigger cracks. Small faults will only get worse.

And if you regularly get water in your basement, the combination of water and time can lead to mold. And having mold in your home can be real trouble.

And if you think you can just put up your house for sale without fixing the problem, that probably won’t work. Signs of structural faults or wet basements will scare away almost every buyer except for the most professional house fixer.

Plus, it’s the seller’s obligation to inform a buyer of any serious home faults. You don’t want to have to say that you know there’s a problem, but you didn’t get it fixed.

If you are seeing some troubling symptoms at your home, don’t be worried that the issue is too difficult or expensive to be fixed.

Experienced contractors can correct almost any problem.

Local Contractors

When it comes to choosing a contractor to get your home fixed, you have a couple of good choices. With experience and equipment, they can plan and complete your repair and get your house back to new shape.

What Areas Do They Work In?

They will usually work all over the local area. They can do most kinds of home repair near Ballard.

This includes the neighborhoods of Blue Ridge, Crown Hill, Loyal Heights, North Beach, Olympic Manor, Sunset Hill and Whittier Heights.

Just make a call and discuss the issue you are having.

Let’s Talk Services

– Residential Foundation Fixes
– Fixing Foundation Cracks
– Waterproofing a Basement
– Making Houses Level
– Concrete Slab Jacking

206-539-1117