Jamming, Sticking Windows & Doors

Settling Foundations

Because of varying soil characteristics, foundation settlement is never uniform. Uneven settlement causes sections of a foundation or slab to crack and shift, while other sections remain in their original positions.

While foundations and slabs crack due to soil settlement, the wood framing supported above is more likely to bend or twist. This results in skewed openings for windows -- and doors and floors that dip.

The drywall fastened to wood framing is not as flexible, so it’s more likely to crack -- especially at the corners of window and doors. When a house has a brick or stone exterior, a settled foundation is likely to have cracks in these upper masonry surfaces due to a lack of flexibility

More about foundation settlement issues.

The Solution:

At The Basement Doctor of Cincinnati, we address foundation settlement issues by installing foundation piers at key locations. The piers extend to stable, load-bearing soil, attached to the foundation with steel brackets. This repair work prevents further settling -- and can even allow the foundation to be jacked back to its original position.

Once the foundation is raised back up, cracks in the wall will close. Doors, locks, and windows may return to functionality, and further settlement damage will halt.

We offer two different types of foundation piers to address foundation settlement: push piers and helical piers.

More about foundation piers.

Sinking Crawl Space Supports

Crawl spaces are often poorly designed, with too few support columns, rotting floor joists and girders, and weak supporting soils causing the supports to sink.

As the crawl space structure sinks, the floor that it supports will sink as well, creating uneven surfaces underfoot. And as the floor sinks, it will pull the interior walls that are attached to it downwards.

As the walls sink, they pull apart, leaving cracks in your interior walls. And as the home warps, doors inside the home will jam and become difficult to open or shut.

The Solution:

We repair crawl space structural issues with crawl space support jacks. We begin by excavating a hole for each support and creating a base of engineered fill. A pre-cast concrete base is installed on top of the fill, and the support jack is mounted on top.

Once installed, our crawl space supports will stop your floor from sinking and sagging. These adjustable jacks can also be modified to attempt to lift your floors and walls back to a level position.

Crawl space jack systems install quickly -- with an installation usually being completed in about a day. They provide a superior solution to other repairs, such as concrete columns, shimming, and light-duty jack posts.

When shopping for crawl space jacks, it's important to find a system that's resistant to corrosion. Crawl space jacks that rust and corrode in a crawl space will become difficult, if not impossible to adjust. If you have a future issue, you won't be able to count on them to operate properly.