Skilled Craftsmen structural foundation repairs, waterproofed, and painted. Phoenix AZ.
The control joint in the garage is opening up slightly more defined than usual, and this one is, too. Looking at the ceiling and the drywall joint, we have separation in two locations here going in this direction. The reason why this interior garage floor is heaving upwards is the only reason why you can see that the crack opening up this garage floor is poured out to the exterior foundation wall here. That’s load-bearing and is separated by an expansion joint; this is called a control joint. It controls the crack in a straight line. Expansion controls the expansion of the concrete under the roof of the interior garage when it heaves up. However just because there is expansion here a lot of people will suggest that oh that’s a floating floor and it moves independently than the foundation wall. Well, that can be true in many circumstances; however, in this circumstance, there is a vertical break in the foundation wall right here, which tells me that this part of the foundation is moving down.
This part of the foundation is moving down because we live in Arizona, which has an arid climate. It hardly ever rains in Arizona, and rain gutters; why should I have to worry about water? Number one reason these foundations are only twenty-four inches from the top of this foundation down to the bottom to the soil holding it up. Twenty-four inches are very shallow, and these stem wall foundations and post-tension foundations, for that matter, are very sensitive to the soil moisture content that is holding up the vertical load being applied by gravity. Rain gutters and proper dirt grading around your foundation are critical here in Arizona. One thing I do want you to notice is that this floor is heaving, and what I’m showing you is the evidence stating that fact. Undeniably, there are no interior walls inside this garage to be pushing up on this drywall to make it crack.
A lot of misdiagnosis here in the Valley of the Sun is on the home’s interior. There will be walls pushing up the floors. Heave cracks, and a lot of times, it’s misdiagnosed because of the fact that. When you don’t know the answer to a question, the go-to excuse is always going to be that all this must be is expansive soil. This is not the case. I’ve only seen one example of expansive soil in 35 years. This causes interior floors to heave up each other, and when the home settles enough, it will crack, causing separation of the interior plumbing, and then a disaster waits. I’ve seen that situation several times, so I’m going out outside the garage to find more evidence. The paint is painted down to the top of the dirt that gets wet below the pink line. Moisture goes in and evaporates, leaving a fluorescent salt deposit behind, chewing off the paint. This is happening everywhere, folks. If you’re building a new house, require that the Builder waterproof this foundation from the top to the bottom of the vertical wall with two coats and waterproofing or tar just below. You know, one inch of the dirt grade, and then you can paint the top. Over here, I’m looking for more evidence to back up my findings on the interior garage floor and the ceiling. Here it is, this is the infamous settling cracks. I’ll often hear people say, ” oh, those are just settling cracks, especially when they’re selling the home, that sort of thing. But this is caused by settlement because we live here in Arizona. It’s an arid climate. Our footings must only be 24 inches deep and 18 inches under the soil. These vertical breaks here, here, there, and there, and there’s a couple more right over there, say, and are the fact that this broken foundation is moving down.
So, if this is moving down the interior garage floors following that foundation wall down, causing the interior floor of the garage floor to heave up at the control joints. It’s pretty simple: it’s not expansive soil causing heave cracks on your interior floor. It’s because your perimeter foundation walls are going down, and variations of That are also going inside. Let’s take a look at this crack. This crack is on the interior floor. This bumper basically goes into your interior floor garage and is separated by expansion. So, diagnose the crack with one foot on one side and one on the other point to the nearest water source.
Okay, we already got evidence of vertical cracks out here, so this is moving down, causing this crack to crack right there. It’s pretty simple, and what you’re viewing here is the separation of the perimeter footing here at this drywall, and this bottom plate is setting on, and this is your interior floor. This was poured separately, right up against the foundation wall, when they moved separately from one another. If you remove your carpet where the tack-stripped location is,, you’ll see that construction joint there. So we’re inside, and this house is moving and has too much water. We’ll get to the outside here in a minute, but here’s what happens, and here’s what most people see: these cracks. These cracks are separations. There is stress on this roof, which is created by moisture. On the outside near the location of the foundation walls, it’s going down, and the stress goes all the way up to the ceiling, and over there,e there was a patch repair made and see the different texture right there, and there it as well There’s also a crack right there right off of that corner too.
Foundation Repair and Waterproofing in Phoenix, AZ
Our Foundation Repair Division is an expert in repairing and waterproofing home foundations and stem walls. Water damage is the leading cause of foundation cracks and crumbling. Identifying the signs and repairing the damage early on is extremely important. The longer the foundation is ignored the worse the damage and the more costly it will be to fix.
We recommend you visually inspect your home’s foundation regularly and look for any signs of cracking or failure. If you have any questions or concerns, contact us anytime, and we can arrange for an inspection of your home’s foundation.
