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After living in your lovely home in Bloomington, Illinois, for many years, you have noticed strange things happening. First, you saw that the windows and doors in your house are sticking. You also notice that the cabinet doors in your kitchen and bathroom don’t close entirely like they once did. And recently, when pulling up to your home, you notice that the chimney on your house looks like it is detached. There are so many strange things occurring, you don’t have a clue who to call. Your mind races wondering whether you should contact a window installation team to replace your windows, get your cabinets replaced, or call a chimney repair person.
You may be surprised to find out that none of these people can fix your problem. Even though the issues may not seem to be associated with the foundation of your home, your issue is most likely a foundation problem. Upon getting an inspection from a qualified foundation inspector, you learn that you need house leveling in Bloomington, IL. But what does the process involve? Read on to learn more about how foundation contractors determine that you need house leveling and what ways they may level your home in Bloomington.
Before starting any foundation repair projects, the Bloomington Foundation Repair Experts begin with a thorough inspection. The structural engineer will check the interior and the exterior foundation of the home, looking for cracks and pools of water. The engineer will also check your crawlspace or basement for moisture problems or bowing in the walls. Another important thing a structural engineer will check is whether your windows and doors shut correctly.
After assessing these critical areas of the home, the structural engineer may conclude that your particular foundation problem should be solved by house leveling in Bloomington, IL. The type of method the engineer recommends is based on the kind of distress your house is experiencing. The engineer will include these issues in a written estimate which provides the costs and the timeline for completing the work. Below are some typical Bloomington house leveling repairs that one of our contractors may suggest.
These methods are relatively quick solutions to your house leveling issue for your Bloomington home. In one to four hours, foundation contractors will use one of these methods to lift your foundation back into place. With slab jacking, the team will come out, drill the holes necessary into the slab, and pump a cement mixture into the hole. This mixture will fill the void that is causing the house to become unlevel, and as it does, the house will become level again. This solution should last about ten years.
Polyjacking is a similar method of leveling the house as slab jacking. The main difference is the material used. While slab jacking uses a cement mixture to level the house, poly jacking uses polyurethane foam. Slab jacking is a much cheaper option, poly jacking cures much quicker and lasts much longer, potentially the lifetime of the house.
Another method for getting your home back on level ground is much more complicated than the previously mentioned methods. An engineer may suggest that you need push piers or helical piers. These methods may take anywhere from one full day to a couple of days to complete. Push and helical pier installation are similar. The goal with both is to lift the sunken part of your foundation back into place, leveling your home and closing off the cracks it may have caused. With helical piers, the bottom of the pier goes down as far as it can in the ground while the top lifts the foundation back into place using a screw-like motion. Push piers do something similar but using a hydraulic, the beam is pushed into place. Pier repair should last up to 75 years, depending on the property’s soil conditions.
After completing your recommended foundation repair, your home should be level once again. However, once the foundation work is done, some other issues may need resolving. For one, you may need to get some plumbing work done because the faulty foundation may have damaged the pipes in proximity to your house. Also, sometimes large cracks may close but not entirely. A contractor will fill in gaps with epoxy to fix this cosmetic issue. The foundation repair team will also make sure that they make your landscape as tidy as they found it. Once everything is finished, they leave a copy of your warranty with you and answer any questions you may have.
Now that your house is level again, you can test out the repairs by checking if your cabinets can close and if your windows and doors are easier to open. These issues should be resolved once your foundation is repaired. However, foundation problems are not always easy to discover. This is why it is a good idea to have a foundation inspection performed at least once a year. To schedule your annual foundation inspection, contact the Bloomington Foundation Repair Expert today at (309) 220-3907.
