Foundation affected by the drought?
 

Was wondering if anyone else has had foundation issues with the ongoing severe drought conditions over the last year.

Living about 10 miles east of Lawrence, the soil here is mostly clay. According to those who know more about soil and drought than I do, clay shrinks alot during drought conditions; and when your house is built on this type of land, that's not a good thing. Over the course of the last year, the right side of my house started sinking, causing the foundation to crack, and that side of the house was lower than the middle by almost 2". Kind of like the Titanic when it split in half before going down. :-(

So, I had to have that side of the house piered. Basically, they drive a set of steel piers down to to the bedrock (in my case that was 7') to jack up and support that side of the house. Not cheap ($8500 for my home), and NOT covered by homeowner's insurance. :banghead:

Positives- at least my home is now pretty much drought-proof for the future. Also, I already had a working relationship with the foundation repair company owner(had done his website), so it could have been FAR more costly(I've heard of homes costing 20-30 grand to do this repair).

Was curious to see if anyone else here has had similar problems.

Z

I had to replace my driveway and sidewalk (about $4K), but so far my foundation has been OK.

I'm glad to see the snow today for this very reason.

Zep - hadn't happened to me (knock on wood) but know of a couple herethat happened to this last fall. Same deal. The house is in the old part of town too, it's like 100 years old, and now this happens.

Sorry man wish you the best!

Yeah, we had some pretty good shifting this year. Cracks in some of the walls, doors not closing properly, etc.

How many trees near your house? Competition for water?
I had never heard of this before and just quickly scanning the Net the Midwest is getting hammered by foundation failure.

A good homesite evaluation is an incredible investment these days. Or call your local FFA chapter, and they might come out and do one for free.

People need to run a soaker hose around their house to keep the soil around the foundation wet/damp to prevent this very problem. (Trick I learned from a concrete/foundation guy.)

I have some cracks in my walls and the inside doors are kind of wonky. I haven't got a repair estimate yet, I don't imagine it will be cheap.

Just pee next to your foundation as often as possible.

You are not alone. There have been many articles in the MPLS paper of this happening in places that are usually wet-near swamps but dry because of the drought.

They are saying to take the drain spouts off the house and water you flowers more frequently when appropriate.


I hope everything will be ok.
Maybe even run the hose if the temp is ok.

Soaker hoses.

Zep,
I have this problem now... back half of house sunk, and homeowner insurance doesn't cover.

Got an estimate from Dry Basement for piering; $16,800. Am going to get a few more estimates before committing that much $.

Wish I had the soaker advice before this...

I used a company called Arrow Foundation- very reasonable. Ask for Mark, tell him Ron his web guy sent you. His warrantly is transferrable to the next owner too (very important).

A lot of people have foundation issues due to the drought.

It seems to be almost as bad as the soil hydrates and begins to expand after all of that contraction. It's causing water leaking issues, cracking etc for several people. I've had a couple of issues on my house as well. Sucks.

Will contact them... much appreciated!