The weather doesn’t just affect the way you live your life—it can also affect how your home’s foundation functions. Heat, rain, and snow can all affect your foundation’s structural integrity, damaging it badly over time. If you want to know how weather affects your home’s foundation, we describe four common weather-related foundation issues here.
While snow is rare in typically warm and sunny California, it’s not impossible. When the temperatures drop below freezing, frost heaving can occur. Frost heaving is a phenomenon where soil swells upward due to ice rising to the surface. As the soil rises, it puts pressure on the foundation, causing cracks and other forms of structural damage.
Another way weather affects your home’s foundation is by causing the soil around or under it to erode. During periods of heavy or extended rain, the soil on the perimeter of your foundation can wash away, causing the foundation to shift or sink into the ground.
All soil expands and contracts. This is normal and won’t usually damage your home’s foundation. Sudden temperature swings, however, cause the ground to expand and contract rapidly, which can result in soil freezing, frost heaving, and the formation or worsening of foundation cracks.
If the land around your home has poor drainage, rain can severely damage the structure. Over time, water will pool around the foundation, wetting, softening, and weakening the soil in that area. If the ground becomes unable and cannot support the weight of your home, the foundation will settle, oftentimes unevenly.
You can’t control the weather, but you can control how you react to the havoc it wreaks. If you’re experiencing foundation problems, contact the experts at Foundation Tech. We can determine if your foundation issues are weather-related and draft a permanent, affordable repair plan to fix the damage and stop it from happening again. Whether you need foundation anchors to stop settlement or polyfoam to fill cracks, we can assist you.