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Foundation Repair

Landscaping Tips That Will Protect Your Home Foundation

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Your home foundation usually doesn’t become a topic of conversation until something bad (and expensive) happens to it. When it cracks or floods, you call us to assess it and repair it. 

While we appreciate your business, there are things you can do this summer that will save you a lot of stress and money. One of the ways to protect your home foundation is to do landscaping, the right way. 

Here are five landscaping tips that will help you protect your home foundation:

  1. Plant trees away from your home foundation: This sounds like it should be pretty obvious, but I have spoken with many clients who love trees and have planted them too close to the foundation. Soon, the roots grow and break through the foundation, causing costly damage. So, plant trees far away from the foundation. 
  2. Leave sections of the home foundation exposed. Too much moisture is also bad for the foundation. Leave some of it visible so it is not moist year-round. 
  3. Don’t cover drains and outlets. Keep all drains and outlets open. Avoid planting anything in front of it which will impede it from draining.
  4. Flower beds should slope away from the foundation. Check the grading of your landscaping. It should not have any water pooling around the foundation. A 9”-10” drop is recommended for the first ten feet around the home. This prevents moisture from accumulating under the home foundation (5% slope away from the foundation). Erosion will occur if there is no slope. 
  5. Water evenly in the areas that are not landscaped. Don’t focus on just one area of the land around the home for landscaping. The soil will eventually expand as it’s likely to be watered the most. As we have discussed in past blogs, expansion of the soil leads to cracks in the foundation. Watering the area around the home evenly will protect the home foundation from eroding from too much water or moisture. 

As you can see, landscaping is a crucial part of taking care of your home foundation. Keeping it from getting too much water or not enough water, is quite important to the health of your home foundation. It takes a few hours a month, but it may save you many heartaches and give a lot of your money to home foundation repair contractors like myself. 

M Taylor Enterprise home foundation repair contractors can consult in Prince George, Montgomery County, and Howard County, MD. If you have seen any of these cracks in your home foundation, call our home foundation and structural repair experts in Maryland at (301) 649-3406 or matt@mtaylorenterprise.com. We will do a free consultation, make recommendations then do any needed repairs done quickly and efficiently. 

Foundation Repair

Home Foundation Repair: Types of Foundation Cracks

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Not all cracks in your foundation are alike.

In fact, the break in the fabric of your home foundation may indicate the type and severity of the problem. It deserves investigation.

Here are the types of cracks in the home foundation: 

  1. Stair foundation cracks: If you have a brick foundation, you may see a diagonal crack (45-degree angle) that resembles stairs. This occurs when the brick is pulled apart by the foundation. If you have a brick façade, you may see the same type of split as the façade is attached to the splitting foundation.
  2. Vertical foundation cracks: These are the ones we see most often in the DMV area. It is a crack that is gradually widening. It may even resemble a spider web with many little vertical cracks. This is a sign that your home foundation is slowly crumbling. This may mean that the soil under your home is shifting. It may also indicate that the section of the home is being pushed up and away from the foundation. This movement creates a breach and can be quite serious. 
  3. Horizontal foundation cracks: When the soil shifts under the home foundation, a horizontal crack may appear. It may also be that there are several different types of soil under the home. Once one part of the soil shifts, it then causes the shifting movement in the other soils. This stress reverberates through the foundation shearing the foundation horizontally. One horizontal crack may mean that the soil is tearing the bottom part of the foundation from the upper part of the foundation. If there are several horizontal foundation cracks, this may indicate that soil is pushing in following the expansion. 

If you have seen any of these cracks on your home foundation, they cannot be ignored. As we have discussed in past blogs, you will see all the telltale signs, and the longer you wait, the more expensive and extensive the repairs will be to your home foundation.  

M Taylor Enterprise home foundation repair contractors can do a consultation in Prince George and Silver Spring, MD area. If you have seen any of these cracks in your home foundation, call our home foundation and structural repair experts in Maryland at (301) 649-3406 or matt@mtaylorenterprise.com. We will do a free consultation, make recommendations then do any needed repairs done quickly and efficiently.