Col's Construction Blog
About Me
Col's Construction Blog

Hello! Welcome to my blog. My name is Col. I live in Perth and I have a passion for construction. I am pretty useless when it comes to construction work so I tend to leave it to the experts. However, I find that there is nothing more pleasing than seeing a team of construction workers complete a job. Over the years, I have hired many different types of construction worker and they have all taken the time to chat with me. During these conversations, I have learnt so pretty interesting things which I will be exploring on this blog. Enjoy!

Col's Construction Blog

Relevant Factors to Consider When Planning Underpinning for Your Home

Ethan Burton

You may be concerned about the structural integrity of your home, or you might have been told that it needs underpinning. This process involves reinforcing the foundation and making sure your house is level and secure. Here is an overview of some relevant factors of residential underpinning.

Symptoms

Foundation problems will typically lead to signs and symptoms which you can observe. For example, you may notice cracks along the walls, either inside or outside. If you have a brick home, you might see stepping cracks through the mortar. Tiled surfaces can fracture also.

Other indications often appear around the windows and doors, which may show gaps. Otherwise, they might not close properly, and the windows and doors won't fit within their frames. Of course, if you notice the floor is sloping and the house appears to be leaning, this is problematic. These issues occur because if the foundation is not level. The house may sink on one side, stressing the entire structure and putting things out of alignment.

Methods

Various underpinning methods are available. One approach is to excavate the earth near the foundation and to pour extra concrete around and underneath the existing slab. An alternate process involves injecting resin into the soil, which then clumps and hardens, creating a stable environment for the foundation to rest within. Rather than pouring concrete, sometimes concrete pilings or nails are buried underneath to support the house.

Causes

Which method is best for your home largely depends on what caused the problems. For example, if the soil gets overly wet or dry, it can become unstable and cause the concrete foundation to sink. Resin injection might be an excellent solution in that case. Alternatively, if you've built a second storey, the foundation may need extra concrete to hold the heavier load. Other factors that can damage your foundation are nearby excavation work and earth tremors.

Experts

You need a team of specialists when planning residential underpinning work. For example, a construction expert deals with foundation problems. They may hire a structural engineer who will assess the cause of the issues. Alternatively, you could hire the structural engineer yourself and present their report to the construction expert. The report will guide them on which approach to take.

Another specialist that may be involved is a geotechnical engineer, who can investigate the soil. They can check to see whether the problem originates from unstable earth.


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