Basement Waterproofing & Foundation Repair in Barberton, OH

Foundation settling often gets detected after the house is falling apart. If you’ve spotted the problem signs and have determined that your foundation is failing, you need to act fast. Settling only gets worse with time, which means that what you are seeing will become more of a problem later on. If allowed to go on for too long, the house may even become too structurally unsound to live in. Before that happens, call your local foundation experts for repairs.

Foundation problems are not something you can just DIY, like a paint job or hanging a painting. For the job to be done right, professional solutions are required. At Ohio Basement Systems, we provide the best foundation repair options for the homeowners of Youngstown, OH, such as helical piers and push piers. These pier support systems will permanently stabilize your foundation and completely stop the settling. The piers even have the potential to lift your home and even it out again.

After repairs are done, you can go about repairing any damage created by the foundation settling. If any door and window frames are warped, get them replaced. If any walls have cracks, get those patched up. It’s not worthwhile to repair your home when it’s settling, since anything that isn’t a support pier will not stop the damage caused by settling. If you haven’t already, also consider waterproofing your foundation, since some problem with the foundation drainage may have caused the settling.

If you have noticed a white, powdery residue on your basement floor or walls, there are a few different potential issues that could be causing this. 

Efflorescence or Plaster Residue? 

There are some benign reasons as to why you might find pale or white powder on your property’s floors or walls. If you have been doing work in your basement, for example, or you have recently installed plasterboard or drywall, it is very likely that any white or pale power you find is from this process. This is especially the case if it is evenly distributed throughout the room. 

If, however, the powdery substance in your basement is limited to certain areas and is found in a flowering formation, the most likely cause is efflorescence. This powder or crystalline substance is not dust or plaster residue, but rather a mineral residue carried into your property by water. When the water evaporated into the air, it left the salt and minerals behind in this formation. 

The Causes of Efflorescence 

As we said, efflorescence is caused by a combination of water and salts or minerals. The salts and minerals themselves are often found in the water or picked up as the water makes its way through the concrete walls or flooring in your basement. In this way, the water is really the carrier for the substance that causes efflorescence formations. 

The actual source of the water, however, can take many different forms. Unless you live in an area with very hard water, however, efflorescence is more likely to be caused by water that is seeping into your home from outside. As such, issues like foundation damage and seepage are far more likely to be the underlying cause of the white powder in your basement. 

At the end of the day, you want the work professionals do around your home to lower your energy bills. While it may not seem like crawl space repairs can do that job for you, they can have more of an impact on your home’s livability—and your budget—than you might anticipate. 

Preventing Fluctuating Temperatures 

Crawl space repairs are going to vary based on the kinds of problems your space is dealing with. However, they all do roughly the same thing: make your crawl space more watertight. This comes in handy if you’re looking to lower your heating bills. Why? Because moisture tends to make your home cooler than it would be otherwise. 

Exposure to rainwater and equivalent moisture tends to cause molecules of all kinds to shrink. That shrinkage makes the air inside of your home cooler. In response to sudden drops of temperature related to crawl space leaks or flooding, your HVAC system must work harder to control temperatures throughout your home. If high electric bills are your primary concern, it’s in your best interest to eliminate the forces causing your temperature to fluctuate – and this means any moisture that’s made itself at home in your crawl space. 

Protecting Other Home Safety Measures 

Professionals do more than just remove unwanted moisture from your crawl space. They can also ensure that any other measures you have in place to control your home’s energy consumption continue to work as they should. 

Your insulation, for example, can suffer if it gets exposed to a significant amount of uncontrolled moisture. If you have professionals come in and stop up a crawl space leak you can prevent the decay that might otherwise cause temperatures in your home to fluctuate. At the end of the day, crawl space repair is as much about eliminating damage in your space as it is making life as simple as possible for your HVAC system. 

Unfortunately, there are no safe do-it-yourself fixes that resolve soil shrinkage, compaction, and settling issues at the source. There are, however, some methods that you can employ to prevent soil problems. Keep in mind they are not perfect and do not compare to the services that professional contractors can provide.   

• Repairing Soil  

Preventing compacted or settled soil is quite simple. Using compost (such as food items in the process of decomposing) can help provide nutrients, which improves aeration and water drainage among soil particles. With time, beneficial organisms, such as the earthworm, will make their way into this healthy soil, further improving its quality and filtration by keeping soil particles loose and aerated. You can also purchase earthworms yourself at a local garden or hardware store. 

You should be sure to cultivate your healthy soil lightly. This means using small-rooted plants rather than large plants, such as trees. These can help water drainage by intaking excess water through their roots. If you go overboard, however, you could risk damage to your foundation when the roots get out of control. 

• Concrete Repair  

While the above methods can certainly prevent or delay soil problems, they will not be effective solutions if you already have soil shrinkage, compaction, or settling occurring underneath your concrete. It is strongly recommended that you contact professional contractors to help you because they know how to safely and properly remove concrete, repair your soil, and replace the concrete on top. 

Working with concrete yourself can put you at risk for injury or unintentional structural damage. This can have even more negative consequences than if you left the problem alone. Most of all, it can be more costly than if you were to have a professional to do it for you.