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Recently, we replaced carpet throughout most of the house with laminate.  When we pulled up the carpet, we noticed a huge crack running right through the middle of the living room.  This did alarm us a little.  So, we called our realtor to get some information on what we were looking at.  She called a foundation repair company to come out and take a look. 

Turns out, we had some slight damage.  It was nothing major, but we decided we didn’t want a larger headache in the future.  So, we opted to get it fixed.  Before we decided on anything, though, I quizzed Max (guy out for the estimate) about things we should be looking for or ways to prevent this in the future.  One thing he told us was that it was almost inevitable that the foundation would start to slip because of a retention ditch behind our house.  Unless the ground is very level all around us, we should expect the house to shift some.  He did give us some other tale-tell signs, though.

One way to help at least slow these issues down would be to put a soaker hose around your house.  Especially in dry conditions this is necessary.  Just turn the hose on and let it run about an hour or so a day.  It won’t have a dramatic affect on your water bill, as the water is controlled and not just running out freely.  This could add some time on to having to do any damage control on your foundation.

If you happen to be reading this and you’re in the Houston area, I strongly recommend Allied Foundation Repair.  They were cheaper than everyone I talked to, but extremely professional and careful with my property.  They even had to pull boards up on my deck to dig down to put the pillars in.  But they did this and replaced the boards with great care!