Your home is your most important possession. As a homeowner, you want to keep it well maintained during every season of the year. You clean your home, patch and paint interior and exterior walls, repair plumbing, fix electrical problems, winterize your windows, check your smoke detector annually and much more.

Another area that you should monitor to maintain and care for your residence is your home's foundation. Settling and movement in your home's foundation can be subtle and difficult to detect. Here are some indicators that can be symptomatic of a potential problem with your house foundation.



Door Problems

All interior and exterior doors in your home should open and close easily without sticking or jamming. If your doors become misaligned or stick, or if you notice diagonal cracks in the upper corners of your doors, you may have a foundation problem.

If you hear a door in your home popping or making a sound when it is closed or you feel air leaks from underneath or on top of a door your foundation may be settling.

Floor Problems

Floors in your home should be perfectly flat and should not sag or warp. They should fit evenly against your walls and baseboard molding without any visible gaps or warping. If you notice that the floor in your home is creaking when no one is walking on it, your foundation may be moving.



Wall Problems

Look for cracks in your walls that appear and grow over time. You can get wall cracks near doors or windows or at any location where your walls meet your floors or ceilings. Cracks can begin as hairline cracks and grow deeper and more noticeable if you have continued foundation problems.



Window Problems

If you find that the windows in your home are sticking or becoming difficult to open and close, there may be movement in your home foundation. Windows in your home should open and close freely, and you should be able to easily lock your windows with the locking mechanism between the window panes.

Window panes should look and feel solid within their frames. The vertical and horizontal parts of your windows should meet together without gaps or warps.

Plumbing Problems

Foundation problems can cause your underground plumbing pipes to leak. Puddles can become noticeable in the soil around your home. Underground plumbing leaks can also cause visible moisture to appear on your basement walls. If the leaks are not repaired, they can cause your basement walls to crack or warp.



Stair Problems

Interior and exterior stairs are also areas that can indicate movement or settling in your home foundation. Be observant of all stairways to make sure that the stair treads remain flat on the risers and the balusters and handrails are firmly attached and do not move over time.

Check the exterior walls and footing of your home for any signs of cracking or movement of your home's foundation. If you see any cracks, draw a perpendicular line across the crack with a permanent marker. Keep watch on this line over time to see if the crack is widening or moving laterally. If you notice that the line on either side of the crack is moving, you may have a foundation problem.

If you notice any potential problems in your home, call Bonilla Foundation Repair, or come into one of our offices. We will make a free site visit to your home, alert you to any foundation problems that we find and give you a free estimate of repairs. Don't wait to stop a foundation problem that you could damage to your home.