All houses today are built on concrete foundations, and placing the foundation is one of the first steps of the construction process. And of course, a home on a good foundation will stay steady and secure, while a home built on a damaged or faulty foundation may suffer problems, such as water leaking in, the home tilting, or even radon gas emitting from the ground underneath and leaking up through cracks in the concrete. Radon gas is a serious health hazard, and foundation failure can lead to the home listing or letting a lot of rain water leak in. If a homeowner realizes that his or her foundation is faulty, drainage services can be called to pump out water that gets into the home, and drainage services can also set up a sump pump and drainage channels so that intruding water does not stay in the home for long. Foundation repair can also be done if the homeowner has the time and money for crews, and they can enter searches such as “foundation repair Dallas” for residents of Dallas, Texas, for residential foundation repair. This can save a homeowner from a lot of expensive hassle later on.
Potential Problems
A faulty foundation calls for drainage services, radon gas testing, or sump pump installation or more. Often, homes in Texas 50 years old or younger are built on slab foundation, which may give them an advantage over older types, but ultimately, any foundation may fall victim to problems that call for drainage services and more.
Water is one such issue, and it can do some serious harm. Leaking pipes in the house, for example, will constantly release water from their cracks or faulty seals and joints, and this water will slowly but surely accumulate in the basement and converge at the lowest point. With all this extra moisture down in the basement, mold growth is accelerated, and molds often emit harmful spores and other airborne toxins that can threaten the health of people and pets alike in the home. If the water is down there long enough, it may even erode concrete or other surfaces, and it can cause water damage to stored items that are down in the basement upon contact. Other harmful forms of life may form in the water, and this can add up to water damage and a health hazard alike. And of course, if someone’s home is exposed to rain, a faulty foundation will let a lot of rainwater into the basement at once, and this is especially true if heavy rain leads to flash flooding. A basement may end up with a foot of standing water or more.
Radon gas is another threat. This is an odorless, tasteless, invisible gas that is radioactive and is known to cause irritating symptoms at first, such as chest pain and nausea, and in higher concentrations, it can rapidly cause lung cancer, and thousands of Americans suffer fatal cases of lung cancer every year due to radon gas exposure. The Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, has guidelines for radon gas exposure, and many American homes today are already at or above the action level, meaning that the gas has reached dangerous concentration in the air. How does this relate to the foundation? Radon gas comes from the ground, and a faulty foundation will have cracks and leaks that could allow a lot of radon gas to waft up into the house’s air.
Solutions
A faulty foundation causes problems, to be sure, but something can be done. For water issues, plumbers can be called to fix leaking pipes, and drainage services can be called to set up new water drains or even install a sump pump that will regularly draw up standing water in the basement and get rid of it. This may be essential for homes in flash flood-prone areas. Finally, a person can visit a hardware store and purchase a radon gas testing kit to sample the air. The kit will later transmit all its data to professionals who will then contact the test kit’s owner and inform them about the results. Dangerous levels of radon gas call for cycling out the bad air in the home to reset the radon levels to low.