Stages of Wall Failure

You may not realize this, but the soil around your home puts a lot of pressure on your foundation walls. They then begin to crack because there is nothing on the inside of the basement walls pushing back. What are the stages of wall failure? Lets talk!

Stage 1: A Crack Appears

The first time your eyes meet a foundation crack, there’s no going back. “What if’s” immediately flood your mind and worry beings to blossom. You stop and think about how many years your home has been standing, and then the worry beings to fade. This is when you should call us to come out and check your foundation, however, many homeowners wait.

You are officially buying time, yet you don’t know it.

Stage 2: The Crack Expands

Very few cracks will stay the same size. As pressure from the soil outside your home continues, the crack will widen. Cracks can be seen in many different forms: horizontal cracking, stair-step cracking, chimney separation, drywall cracks, pushing in at the bottom of the wall, sliding in at the top of the wall, and from window and doors.

Stage 3: The Wall Bows

If you have ignored the crack in your wall for this long, here’s where it starts to get serious. When the crack gets so large that the wall starts to lean inward, your home is at major risk. Depending on where the crack is and how far it has expanded, the wall may lean in at the top or bulge toward the middle. As the wall bows, it will only bow more and faster because pressure from the soil as well as the weight of the house it’s supporting combine and are too much for it to handle.

Stage 4: Wall Failure

There’s no doubt that cracked, bowing, and tipping walls are a scary sight! If the problem is left untreated, the situation only gets worse over time and can leave you questioning the safety of your home. Ultimately, your wall could not hold any more pressure that it was being given and collapses, causing more problems than you can imagine.

At Healthy Spaces we want to help you restore your bowing, buckling, tilting, or shifting foundation walls back to their original, structurally stable condition. We have many different products and solutions that will help fix all your foundation needs along with a free estimate, to get you on your way with a safe and healthy place to live.