If you’re looking to keep your home in good shape, consider these measures for protecting your foundation, from crawl space encapsulation services to basement wall repair. Making sure that your foundation, be it a crawl space foundation, basement foundation, or slab foundation (the three most popular types of foundation found throughout the United States), will more than pay off at the end of the day. Fortunately, there are many ways to make this is a reality.
For one thing, regular inspections can help to ensure that measures for foundation repair will not be needed. Ideally, you’ll have your foundation checked out before you sell your home, as a foundation in bad shape is going to make it much more difficult indeed for your property to be sold – at least for as high of an asking price as you might want. In addition to this, you should still have your foundation checked out and thoroughly looked over at least once every couple of decades – even if you plan on staying in your home for some time to come, if not for the rest of your life. Having invested at least 8% – and potentially as much as 15% – of your home’s initial cost in the creation of your foundation at the time of the building of your home is something that will help to ensure the ability of your foundation to withstand the test of time.
Taking various other precautionary measures can also have this effect. For instance, you should ensure that your gutter system is diverting any water that passes through it at least ten feet from your home. This will help to prevent water damage to your foundation. Regularly cleaning and caring for your gutters will also have a largely positive impact on not just the gutters themselves, but the entirety of your home to boot.
Even gardening can end up having an impact on the overall quality of your foundation. For instance, planting anything too close to your foundation can lead to issues with the foundation. Ideally, you will keep your plants at least two feet away from the foundation. In addition to this, it can be important not to plant too deeply, as roots that go too deep can also end up interfering with the foundation.
And taking additional measures like crawl space encapsulation and exterior waterproofing are beneficial in terms of preventing water damage. After all, crawl spaces and basements alike can be prone to flooding, with upwards of 98% of all American basements flooding at one point in time or another, making up to 14,000 people daily deal with some type of water and flooding related emergency. Unfortunately, up to 37% of all home owners in this one country alone have experienced damage to their property and possessions as a result of flooding, something that can be devastating emotionally as well as, of course, financially.
Fortunately, something like crawl space encapsulation or basement waterproofing can go a long way towards protecting your foundation. As a matter of fact, the data surrounding crawl space encapsulation and the like is more than convincing, showing that measures like crawl space encapsulation can actually have quite the high return on investment, one that often reaches (at least on average) more than 30%. Crawl space encapsulation and other basement waterproofing measures, therefore, are very much worth it at the end of the day. Investing in crawl space encapsulation and the like is highly likely to pay off indeed, to say the very least.
At the end of the day, it is highly important not to underestimate the overall importance of your foundation. After all, your home would not be nearly as high in quality or stability if there were issues with the foundation. Therefore, taking the necessary steps to protect your home’s foundation is something that is hugely important indeed. From planting your garden with care to cleaning your gutters to even having a crawl space encapsulation performed, there are many steps that can be taken when it comes to the overall care and keeping of your foundation and all of these steps should certainly be thought of as important and worthwhile, to say the least.
