“This article is written by an independent resource not affiliated with Ram Jack.”
All houses require concrete foundations to support the weight of the building uniformly.  When damage to these foundations occur, it represents a major complication to the utility of a home and must be fixed immediately.  The foundation should be the first thing that any prospective homeowner inspects when purchasing a house, as foundation problems

(or potential problems) are a major red flag.  If you can find indications of potential damage, it can save you thousands of dollars in the future when the foundation cracks or sinks into the ground.

The most obvious indication of foundation problems

is an uneven floor.  You can usually tell when a floor is raised by even a fraction of an inch compared to the rest of the surface; the body automatically seeks equilibrium in balance and walking over an uneven surface automatically attracts attention.  Sometimes it may be more difficult to tell and requires a level.  In any case, flooring is the tell-tale sign of damage.  Other symptoms of a faulty foundation are where two contact points of a house meet to share the burden of weight.  These occur most often over doorways: if you see sagging doorframes or cracks running down from the top or sides, it indicates that one part of the frame is supporting more weight than the other.  The door itself may not be able to close all the way, may not lock properly, or may swing open without contact.  If windows do not close all the way or slide shut, it can also be a hint about your foundation problems .

Go about your house to check for foundation problems.  Place levels on bookshelves and furniture to determine if it is more than a few degrees away from an even 180 degree surface.  Check the outside to see if parts of the foundation have shifted out of the soil and are visible.  Stick a screwdriver into the concrete; if you only scratch the material then it may be fine, but if you can make a hole then the concrete may be deteriorating from too much moisture or high-acidity soil.  Older houses tended to be built with a foundation that had too much sand in the concrete, making it flake off and disintegrate over time.

A slab foundation, a typical base for smaller homes or rapidly-constructed houses, a structural engineer will be able to measure the frame and tell you if the foundation has a crack or is sinking.  It may cost several hundred dollars for this inspection and evaluation, along with several thousand dollars more if the engineer agrees to draw up the blueprints for getting under the house and solving the foundation problems.  In the best case scenario, the soil beneath your house has become too compact and you may expand it again by applying enough moisture.  The irrigation costs of this depend upon the part of the country you live, but should not cost more than a few hundred dollars per year.  The worst-case scenario, however, means that the entire foundation needs to be boosted.

When the foundation needs to be elevated, a team is needed to go underneath the concrete and gird the slab with enough steel piers to lift it back up.  These must be placed every six to eight feet around your yard, and the cost of one may be a thousand dollars.  The good news is that this is minimally intrusive on your house and yard, can be completed in a day, and will avoid future pitfalls.  What’s more, you will save money in the long run by fixing foundation problems when you sell your house in the future.