First blogg/ foundations

Well since we are talking construction I guess I will start at the bottom, Foundations.

Fortunately foundations are fairly simply to diagnose. I would say that foundation problems fall under 2 categories. The first is the most common in my opinion, and really is not foundation related, but framing related. Several people notice settling, sagging, bouncy floors, or a myriad of symptoms of a home that is improperly framed. Either the framing lumber was undersized, poor craftsmanship, or the loads were improperly distributed. Depending on the age of the property and type of construction the severity can be small or great. The second cause for foundation failure is unstable soil. This is a direct foundation problem. Here one of two things happened, the foundation of the property was either under sized/wrong design for the soil strata, or the strata itself is incapable of supporting the load above.

Fortunately 99% of all foundation problems are fixable, however they are typically expensive.I always say "its the money you never see in your home". Meaning if you got a new bathroom or kitchen you could see where your money went, but under your home in the dirt, welllll, not so much. So now time for the advice. before you purchase a property have the foundation inspected thoroughly, look for wall cracks, jump up on the floors, crawl under the house. if you have a property already look for the same signs. And remember as with all problems in buildings they don't heal themselves, and only get worse. So preventative or fast action is always the most cost effective approach.