Is Your Beacon Hill Basement Wet? Foundation Issues or Concrete Cracks?

If you have a foundation, concrete or wet basement issue, someone can help.

They will have solutions to raise your concrete slab, fill your concrete cracks and get your basement dry.

If you have an issue in one of these areas, maybe you aren’t sure how bad your problem is, you could make a quick phone call and talk about it.

They can discuss your issue on the phone and let you know what your options are.

If you want, they could arrange a time to meet at your home for a closer look.

I’m Not Sure I Have a Real Problem

Look, it can be hard to tell sometimes if you have a real problem or not. For example, some basement cracks don’t mean much; other times, they can indicate something major is wrong.

In other situations, like when you get water in your basement, it’s pretty obvious you have a problem that needs addressing.

Here are 14 Warning Signs You May Have a Foundation Problem

1. Cracked or separated or interior molding, often crown molding or door molding
2. Vertical cracks in sheet rock, usually between a door frame and the ceiling
3. Cracks in solid surface interior or exterior walls
4. Your basement smells musty or seems damp and humid
5. A wet crawlspace or obvious pooling of water near your house after rains
6. Gaps or separation between exterior walls or a wall and chimney
7. Cracks in any exterior or interior brick wall or mortar
8. Floors appear to be sagging, weak, warped or uneven, or floor tiles have become loose or broken
9. Gaps around doors, especially exterior doors and garage doors, that you just recently noticed
10. Gaps between a wall and ceiling, or a wall and floor
11. Doors or windows stick to their frames when you try to open them, or close too hard
12. Large cracks in a concrete basement floor or foundation
13. Water in your basement
14. Uneven or sloping interior floors

Can a Structural Problem Even Be Fixed?

Major house structural problems, such as leveling an entire house, is a big project, but these projects can be accomplished.

These jobs get done. You just need to find the right company to do it for you.

The right Seattle company can take on this kind of job, but only when they have an experienced lead contractor, good workers and the most reliable equipment.

It’s a tough job, but it can be done. And once it’s done, your house will be safe and sound again.

Beacon Hill Basement Waterproofing Contractor

If your basement gets water in it after a heavy rain, they can put a stop to it. They will figure out why water is getting in and how to stop it.

No homeowner should put up with a wet basement.

In order to get your basement dry, they may work on the inside of your basement or they may be able to get the job done by just working on the outside.

They may be able to stop water from coming into your house by just improving the grading of your lot, installing gutters, a french drain or other tactic. They may not have to have access to your basement walls at all.

Mudjacking or Concrete Slab Lifting in Beacon Hill

Some homeowners notice that a section of their concrete walkway, patio, driveway or garage floor has sunken a bit through the years. If this has happened at your property, they can usually fix it through a process often called mud jacking or slab jacking.

This process of slab jacking is simple but effective. A thick mud-like substance is forced directly underneath the slab that has sunk.

The substance expands to fill up any empty cavity and then starts to push up the slab. Once the slab has reached the right height, the work is stopped.

Besides appearance, the main reason homeowners call for slab jacking is that having uneven concrete sections can lead to trips, falls and, in the warm months, stubbed toes. Almost all jobs are finished in just a few hours.

Why Do These Kind of Problems Happen Anyway?

While you can never see it happen, soil moves a little bit over time. It contracts and expands. This happens mostly due to exposure to water and temperature. And even though this movement is small and slow, these contractions and expansions can put stress on whatever structure is in or on top of the soil. And over time, this repeated stress can impact even the integrity of a very solid structure.

Most homeowners don’t experience dramatic foundation or water issues, but a few do. There are a few things a homeowner can do to help prevent problems.

First they can make sure the lot their house sits on is properly graded to move water away from their house. And they can make sure they have rain gutters that take all the rain that lands on their house and moves it away from their house as well.

One of the biggest factors that impact a house is the absorbency of the soil it sits on. Soil that can absorb and hold a lot of moisture will tend to expand more than soil that doesn’t hold water well.

You are pretty lucky here in King County, most of the soil under our homes is not highly absorbent.

Another secondary factor can be the presence of a large tree that is too close to your house. During a dry spell, a large tree’s extensive roots can suck all the moisture out of the soil near it. And big roots can also put pressure on your foundation too.

Over the years, environmental pressures acting against your home’s structure can result in small cracks. Sometimes small cracks stay small; but sometimes they get bigger. And bigger cracks let in moisture and bugs. And moisture in your basement is never good.

Do I Really Need to Get My House Inspected?

If you have some issue with your house that is worrying you, you should get a professional to at least take a look at it.

It may be that you don’t even need to have it repaired. Maybe you are getting worried without any reason. But you are better off having it inspected and getting a professional opinion.

It’s normal to hope that your problem simply goes away, but concrete cracks and faults don’t fix themselves. They won’t get better over time. It’s almost always better to address the issue now instead of later.

And if you are seeing small amounts of water in your basement on a pretty regular basis, that can lead to mold. And nobody wants to have a mold problem in their home.

And trying to sell your house without doing any repairs probably isn’t a good idea either. Very few home buyers will be interested in a property that has any sign of water in the basement or structural problems.

Plus, if you know you have a serious property issue, you are obligated to inform the buyer of what it is. You don’t want the buyer to come back after you after the sale is over.

Don’t be worried into thinking that your problem is too difficult to fix. Or that it will be too costly.

An experienced contractor can correct almost any issue you have. And the final cost may be lower than what you are expecting.

Local House Repairs

When the time comes to picking a contractor to get your home fixed, you have a few good choices. Experienced work crews can inspect your property, plan your project and complete the repairs as promised. They’ll get your home back in top shape.

Where in Washington Do They Work?

They can do all kinds of home repair near Beacon Hill, Brighton, Columbia City, Georgetown, Mount Baker and the surrounding Seattle area. Just make a quick call and talk about what your problem is and then go from there.

Services That Can Be Done For You:

– Crack Repair
– General Foundation Repair
– Building Leveling
– Crawlspace Waterproofing
– Concrete Slab Leveling

206-539-1117