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Georgia, North Carolina & South Carolina
Stair-step cracks are more common than you would think, most of the time they are filled in or covered up with a type of caulk. After being filled in, they will get painted over and forgotten about. This method is used when someone is trying to sell a house and is trying to get out of paying for foundation lifting. This method is WRONG and DANGEROUS! Homeowners or remodelers should never cover up a foundation settlement crack, because over time they will be detrimental to a home.
When there is a covered foundation settlement crack, usually it is filled with some type of silicone or mud filling. Taking time to thoroughly check your home’s foundation walls yourself, could save you a very large headache down the line.
A stair-step crack will form when the soil underneath the footer of the foundation becomes weak or settles. The mortar holding the blocks or bricks of a foundation together is not strong enough to hold up the structure without proper compact of the soil. This can be because of a disconnected downspout washing away the topsoil from under the foundation. Foundation settlement can also happen when at the time the home was built, the soil was not compacted well, and over a period of time, it will compact naturally.
Many times, houses that are built on a slab foundation will experience a slab crack. The reason for a crack in a slab is, the footer will break. A footer breaking will be because of undermining, or improper compaction.
Undermining will result when voids form under the footer due to water. When a void forms under a footer, the footer has no support and will drop and break.
Improper Compaction is very common when using fill dirt on a new construction home. Often times it is hard to compact the dirt to a natural level when performing the compaction manually. Once the soil settles, the footer will settle with it, and the slab will form cracks because it is being pulled down with the footer.
Helical piers can be used for a repair of a home and a new construction home build. Our foundation repair specialist will drive a galvanized helical into the ground and once they have reached bedrock, they will use pressure to lift the foundation back into place.
Push piers are used only for repairs of a foundation. The way this works is, we will dig down to the footer of the home, and set the footer on the push pier. Next, we will use pressure to lift the home back into place. All of our foundation stabilization solutions come with a lifetime transferable warranty.
Our helical piers are used on new construction homes when the home is built on filled dirt. They are driven down to bedrock and capped off. The footer of the home is poured over the capped helical. This method of stabilization ensures a lifetime of no foundation settlement issues.