It was supposed to be their dream house. The 55 year old Suzuki piano teacher and her husband were only in their new home for six months when they began to notice that the basement bathroom door was closing incorrectly. With all five of their children grown and living on their own with their families, the basement was really just used for its intended purpose, piano lessons. This meant, however, that the basement piano studio bathroom was normally only used by students and their parents. The cleaning service that came in once every two weeks likely never shut the door all of the way, so it wasn’t until the teacher used the bathroom herself that she noticed the door would not shut.
This small problem turned into a more major issue which eventually led to the discovery of a ranch house foundation that was sliding into two pieces. As part of the foundation repair, the house had to be lifted so that the required back hoeing, which should have been done in the first place, could be increased. The dream house became a nightmare while several different construction companies offered recommendations and bids for the job.
Foundation problems can cause damage to a variety of places in the home, the garage door, the basement windows, even the stability of the house walls themselves. Although expensive and extensive, these major issues must be repaired as soon as they are noticed, so that additional parts of the home are not compromised. The best contractors will stand behind their work, even if major foundation problems develop.
More than 700,000 construction companies in America make up the $1.731 trillion annual revenue for this industry. And none of these construction projects will be successful if the foundations that these buildings are based upon are not solid.
Basically, there are three kinds of foundations for permanent buildings. They include the full basement, the crawlspace and the slab. While sometimes the choice between these three kinds can be decided upon by the construction company or the homeowner, the make up of the soil often determines what kind of basement is used in a certain region. Although the construction of these three different foundation types is different, some similarities also occur. For instance, even a crawlspace foundation allows access to under the house plumbing and electrical work.
Few things are more important in construction than the stability and the integrity of the basic foundation. When you are selecting a construction contractor it is important that you ask questions about the type of foundation they will be using and what warranty is offered on that foundation.
