Finished Basement: Finding Wall Cracks
How do You Find Wall Cracks if You Have a Finished Basement?
When you make the decision to finish your home’s basement you’re typically making the decision based on the fact that your basement will look better physically, but, unfortunately, a finished basement can hurt the health of your home. Finishing your basement will make it much harder to see wall cracks that can be a sign of foundation failure. Finding these signs of foundation failure can help you to find out whether or not your home may have foundation failure and is in need of basement foundation repair. If you can not find them, your home may go through other harmful symptoms of foundation failure before you notice that you even have foundation failure. These wall cracks are also the number one source of seepage as well, leaving you to try and figure out where it came from. Unfortunately, a finished basement just makes it harder to find wall cracks.
Steps to Finding Wall Cracks in Your Atlanta Finished Basement
There are a few steps you can take to try and help you find signs of wall cracks. You do not have to start ripping out drywall or paneling, all you have to do is take a quick look around the base of the outside of your home, taking time to look at the top of your foundation wall. It should be visible without having to do too much work, but if it is not, just take a shovel to pull back some of the soil so that you are able to see it. Then, you will want to clear the foundation wall of any dust and dirt that could block your view of any cracks. Start searching for small cracks on the foundation wall. These cracks may be small, some even 1/16 of an inch wide. Focus especially on any areas that you have noticed seepage on the inside of your basement. For example, if you noticed seepage on the basement ground go the other side of the wall on the outside and look for cracks there. Also, don’t expect to find cracks everywhere. On average, most homes have between two and eight wall cracks, and many of those don’t matter because they don’t go all the way through the wall.
I Do Have Wall Cracks – Now What?
If you do end up finding a few cracks, don’t panic too much, but you may be in need of basement foundation repair. First, we suggest looking for other signs of foundation failure, such as sticking doors and windows, sinking foundation, leaning or bowing walls, or even a leaning chimney. If find that you have one or more of these, we definitely suggest calling a professional contractor. Not only is foundation failure dangerous to the structure of your home, but also to your safety. Now, if you simply have cracks, we can help you fill them so that you do not have to worry about them anymore. In case you have more than that, we have a variety of solutions for all your foundation failure problems. We obtain all of our repair products from Earth Contact Products, the top producer of foundation repair products. We can guarantee the quality, and of course, the quality of our work as well. Atlas Piers is an experienced team of professionals who are ready at any time to help you with any and all foundation repair situations. We are proud to be able to service the Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North and South Carolina, and Florida areas. Call us today, we’ll even give you a FREE estimate