Foundation Repair and Basement Waterproofing in Fairmont, WV

A buildup of groundwater against your Fairmont home’s basement wall causes your basement walls to bow. To stop the bowing, apply a lot of pressure to the inside of the basement so it can push back against the hydrostatic pressure. At Foundation Systems of West Virginia, we have three alternative solutions for bowing walls. Carbon fiber straps are the first option, and they’re utilized on walls that are leaning less than two inches inward. High-strength epoxy adhesive is used to adhere the carbon fiber straps to the wall, ensuring solid reinforcement.

Then, for more advanced inward movement, we have wall anchors. Outside, holes are dug away from the bowing wall, and earth anchors are installed within. The basement walls are then drilled with holes for steel rods to be pushed through until they can be fastened to the wall anchors. The remaining portion of the rod protrudes from the basement wall and is used to secure a steel plate to the wall. The plate and rod are bolted together, stabilizing the wall while the bolt is tightened.

You can use our IntelliBrace™ if there isn’t enough area for excavation or if you just need a solution with a less intrusive installation approach. Steel I-beams are anchored vertically over the whole wall with IntelliBrace™. The top and bottom of the beams are attached with specific brackets that are designed to fit nicely with your floor joists.

Concrete slab sinking cannot be totally avoided. There will always be some form of settling occurring, no matter how well you take care of your slab. This is because the soil will always be shifted in some fashion. There are, however, some steps that may be taken to slow down concrete settling and extend the life of the concrete. The key is to stay as far away from water and snow as possible.

This may be challenging, given that Fairmont usually sees an average of 47 inches of rain and 31 inches of snow per year. If you have a pool deck, keeping it dry will be nearly impossible unless you don’t use the pool at all. A driveway cover, on the other hand, can be used to protect a driveway. If you can’t keep it up all year, at least utilize it in the winter. Because of all the wetness and the damage caused by the freeze-thaw cycle, winter can be especially severe on concrete and the soil beneath it.

Soil erosion is a slow process, but it can happen quickly around some places of the property, such as near slabs that are next to the soil in your garden. Planting greenery around the concrete slab’s edge will give adequate cover for the soil to reduce the erosion process. Finally, the best method to avoid significant settling is to recognize the indicators and get repairs done as soon as possible.

On the surface of concrete, efflorescence is a white powdery residue, and it’s easy for Fairmont homeowners to frequently mistake efflorescence for mold. However, efflorescence feels gritty when you touch it or scratch it, and part of it peels off. If you scrape efflorescence off the concrete, you can feel the texture of salt.

Efflorescence on your concrete can be classified as either “primary” or “secondary.” Primary efflorescence is caused by an excess of water in the cement mixture and occurs 48 to 72 hours after the concrete is poured. Water evaporates and rises to the surface of the concrete as the cement dries, bringing with it all of the salts and minerals from the cement. Even pros make mistakes now and then, but an experienced contractor is less likely to make efflorescence-producing cement.

The humidity in your basement or crawl space is indicated by secondary efflorescence. When an external water source saturates the concrete, secondary efflorescence occurs. When this moisture evaporates, it raises the salts and minerals in the concrete to the surface. If your concrete has efflorescence stains, it’s conceivable that moisture from the outside is penetrating the concrete and generating the stains. Efflorescence stains may not appear to be significant, but the displaced salt particles clog the pores of the concrete, trapping moisture and developing fissures.

Yes. If you want to minimize moisture, flooding, humidity, and pest infestation in your Fairmont home, you should seal Yes. If you want to minimize moisture, flooding, humidity, and pest infestation in your Fairmont home, you should seal unprotected crawl space vents. There is no circumstance in which having open crawl space vents is healthy or safe for your property. With that in mind, it is absolutely legitimate to inquire as to why they were installed in the first place. The explanation for this is simple: crawl space vents were thought to be good for the overall health and well-being of these properties when they were created.

Installing crawl space vents in new properties was considered best practice between the 1950s and the 1990s.This was done because experts believed it would improve airflow in the crawl space and help to prevent or reduce dampness and humidity in the home. Of course, subsequent research revealed that while these vents did boost airflow, they were more likely to produce dampness and excessive humidity than prevent it.

This is due in part to a phenomenon known as the stack effect. The stack effect, also known as the chimney effect, is a channel of airflow that runs from the bottom to the top of a building. Depending on the season and whether your HVAC system produces heat or cold, this drastically affects the interior atmosphere of a house and can cause moisture in your crawl space and attic. The stack effect not only causes wetness, but it also causes temperature variations, higher energy costs, and faster depreciation of your HVAC system, leading to unavoidable breakdowns and damage. Installing airtight vent covers can go a long way toward preventing this!

Failure of your sump pump can cause a lot of problems in your Fairmont home’s basement or crawl space. There would be no way to effectively pump out water that enters the area without it. While a sump pump ensures that basement flooding does not harm your basement, it is a piece of equipment with a limited lifespan and requires some maintenance. If your sump pump has stopped working, there are a few things you should look into to figure out what’s wrong.

The power cord, backup battery, and float switch are the first three things you should inspect. The electrical line to your sump pump may be unplugged or damaged and broken, causing problems. Overworked sump pump batteries expire faster, which is normally the case after a lot of rain or a big storm, so if your sump pump stopped working after either of those, that’s most likely the problem. If the float switch does not rise and the sump pump does not turn on after you drop water into the sump pump’s pit, the switch needs to be changed.

The discharge pipes are another reason sump pumps quit working. The discharge pipe, like any other pipe in your home, can become clogged or frozen. Check for frozen pipes throughout the winter and consider installing a special attachment on your discharge line system to avoid future issues. Check and clean the pipes for leaves and debris on a regular basis during the fall. Because of all the falling leaves being swept around by the wind throughout the autumn, clogged pipes are fairly prevalent.

Sometimes, homeowners put off repairs and don’t handle the issues with their property as quickly as they should. Often it is because they believe the repairs are too costly, and other times it’s because the problems appear to be minor at first. However, itis a mistake to put off house repairs for too long.

Structural issues in Fairmont homes deteriorate with time, and they deteriorate fast in many cases. If you don’t fix them right away, you’ll end up with considerably more expensive and invasive fixes. You’ll save a lot of money in the long term if you fix the problem as soon as it arises.

It’s also a bad idea to attempt to remedy structural issues on your own. They’re often quite complicated, and they require many pieces of machinery and resources that a typical household lacks. It’s preferable to leave such repairs to the professionals.